BA flight from Thailand on route to Heathrow

British tourists that have been stranded in Thailand, some since early last week, will arrive back at Heathrow today on the first flight operated by British Airways out of Thailand since anti-government demonstrators closed Bangkok’s international airport.

British Airways officials announced that a relief flight, carrying approximately 160 passengers, would land at Heathrow on Friday afternoon.

The British carrier sent an empty plane to Phuket, the well-known resort in southern Thailand, to pick up its customers. Free coach transportation had been arranged for tourists to travel from Bangkok to Phuket in order to catch the flight.

A spokesman for BA said: “We have laid on a special flight from Phuket to Heathrow for our customers who have been unable to travel.

He went on to say: “It is a 272 seater aircraft with about 160 passengers on board. We bussed customers Bangkok down to Phuket so that they can catch the flight.”

The Boeing 777, which has a capacity for carrying 272 passengers, is expected to land at Heathrow at approximately 2:05pm local time.

According to the spokesman, the flight was not full as Qantas, BA’s oneworld partner, had already flown passengers back to the UK via Singapore.

The Bangkok international airport, Suvarnabhumi, has official reopened, but it is operating at only around 50 per cent capacity, with dozens of flights still cancelled.

Nearly 5,000 Britons were reportedly stranded in Thailand by the occupation of Bangkok’s airports by anti-government protesters.

Thanks to www.telegraph.co.uk for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.britishairways.com