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| Koh Samui Flood |
Bangkok Airways operated 19 flights yesterday to carry about 2,000 passengers off the flood-stricken island.
Thai Airways made three flights to Samui and transported 600 passengers who were stranded on the island after heavy flooding closed the island's airport.
Bangkok Airways, which operates the largest number of flights through Samui, on Tuesday cancelled all 53 incoming and outgoing flights.
The affected routes by the carrier included Bangkok-Samui, Chiang Mai-Samui, Phuket-Samui, Krabi-Samui, U-tapao-Samui, Hong Kong-Samui and Singapore-Samui.
Thousands of tourists were stranded on the holiday island due to a low pressure area that disrupted all transport modes to and from the island.
There were chaotic scenes at Samui International Airport yesterday as hundreds of people scrambled for tickets to get a flight off the island.
Hundreds of stranded passengers had spent nights at the airport, while others braved the floods to reach the airport every day in the hope they would be able to board a flight.
Several flights had already left the island but many passengers returned to their hotels after they failed to secure seats.
Four Hong Kong tourists who stayed at the airport all day but were unable to rebook their flights described the airport as "chaotic".
"Queues were long," said one tourist, who declined to be named.
"It is hard to even find a place to stand. People were angry. Some were arguing with each other. People screamed at the airline staff."
Tourists were becoming frustrated at the lack of information from airline operators as passengers were required to come to the airport despite severe floods along Samui's roads. People whose flights were cancelled in the past three days were told by airline staff that priority would be given to those who had booked yesterday.
"The weather was not good for landing ... it was dangerous," said ML Nandhika Varavarn, vice-president of corporate communications for Bangkok Airways. "Passengers must understand."
Island mayor Ramnate Chaikwang said most people had been evacuated to higher ground. Most hotels, restaurants and convenience stores on Chaweng beach road have been closed since yesterday.
The Russian government has officially asked Thailand to rescue about 600 Russian tourists stranded on Samui and transfer them to HTMS Chakri Naruebet.
Sources: http://www.bangkokpost.com
