Vietnam Airlines Striving to Help Stranded Passengers Return Home

The national flag carrier, Vietnam Airlines, said it plans to increase flights and provide bigger planes on its routes from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City to three Bangkok gateways to help passengers who have been stranded in Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport return home.

 

The airline will coordinate with Thai authorities to help 500 passengers currently stranded at the airport.

 

The passengers will first travel by bus to airports in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh in Cambodia and Vientiane in Laos and then fly on Vietnam Airlines to Hanoi or HCM City, free of charge.

 

The airline is in collaboration with the Vietnamese Embassy in Bangkok and its representative office in Thailand to provide information regarding flight timetables and immigration procedures for passengers.

 

According to Thailand news agency (TNA), on the night of Nov. 25, civil aviation authorities in Bangkok closed Suvarnabhumi Airport after hundreds of anti-government protesters broke through police lines and flowed into the busy terminal, disrupting airport operations, in an attempt to prevent Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat from returning home from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Peru.

 

The current conditions at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport are still strained, and have forces Vietnam Airlines to cancel four flights from the country to Thailand since Nov. 26, in order to ensure the safety and security of its flights and passengers.

 

The flights will be cancelled until November 29. (VNS, The People, Labor)