More stranded HK travelors back home from Thailand

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-12-01 08:31

HONG KONG -- A Cathay Pacific special flight from Thailand landed at the Hong Kong International Airport on Sunday evening, taking home over 380 Hong Kong travelers that have been stranded in Thailand over the past days.

It was the third special flight mounted by Cathay Pacific in as many days, each with a capacity for 385 passengers, a spokeswoman for the airline told Xinhua.

Authorities in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) have managed to secure six special flights on Friday and Saturday to bring home over 1,100 residents from Bangkok, where airports have been paralyzed by anti-government demonstrations.

About 600 Hong Kong residents were still estimated to be trapped in Bangkok, including many individual travelers who found it hard to get tickets for the special flights, the Security Bureau of the HKSAR government said.

The special flight run by Cathay Pacific arrived in Hong Kong at around 08:30 p.m. local time, some three hours later than what has been previously planned.

Cathay Pacific said the delay was not unexpected as the Utapao Airport, a military airport that lies over 100 km south of Bangkok, was crowded with flights.

Dragonair, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cathay Pacific, also managed to make arrangements for a special flight Sunday taking Hong Kong travelers home from Phuket of Thailand.

Cathay Pacific said it will run another special flight on Monday, and possibly on Tuesday as well if confirmation was acquired from Utapao Airport.

The Airport Authority of Hong Kong said there were a total of three special flights from Thailand, including the Cathay Pacific flight and the Dragonair one.

The HKSAR government has been sparing no efforts to try and secure confirmation for flights from the Thai authorities, and staff the Immigration Department were also in Thailand provided assistance to Hong Kong residents in need, said Ngai Wing-chit, deputy secretary for security of the HKSAR government, at a press conference.

Hopefully most of the stranded travelers will be back within a few days, he said.

Ngai said that Utapao Airport was a military air base with very limited capacity, and that the most pressing task in hand was to secure more flights.