HUNDREDS of Bangkok-bound travellers showed up at Changi Airport yesterday morning but never got to board their planes.
All 19 flights scheduled to depart for the Thai capital from 7.10am to 10.35pm were cancelled, a day after anti-government protesters stormed the main terminal of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport, shutting it down.
Flights cancelled
STUCK IN PATTAYA
'After an 11-hour flight, we had to wait another three to four hours to get our luggage, because the airline had no ground crew in Pattaya. We are really not sure when we are flying back to Singapore.
With no indication yet of when normal operations would resume, carriers operating between the two cities - Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Cathay Pacific, Tiger Airways, Jetstar Asia and Thai AirAsia - are advising customers to track developments to flight schedules online.
At Terminal 1 at 6am, more than a hundred travellers were waiting to catch their flights on Jetstar and Thai Airways. Many were ignorant of the situation in Bangkok. Lamented civil engineer Annalingam Selvakumar, 43, who had planned a six-day holiday with his family: 'We did not watch the news last night. We are disappointed but have no choice.'
Jetstar's commercial head Raphael Saw said 40 per cent of those booked on the 7.15am flight had turned up.
At the Thai Airways counter, people were still being checked in for the 8.10am flight. There was some confusion and unhappiness when travellers were told the flight had been delayed till 11am, only to be told later that it had been cancelled.
Among them were secondary school teacher Tanveer Khan, 33, and his 17-year-old sister Jumanah, who were on their way to Dhaka via Bangkok. Refusing to abort their trip, they left last night on a non-stop SIA flight to Bangladesh.
Other travellers, like Mrs Connie Cheong, 51, who was all geared to shop till she dropped with her husband and two teenage girls, changed their minds. The administrative officer and her family will go to Kuala Lumpur by bus instead.
Because of the uncertain conditions, airlines said travellers who choose to cancel their bookings will receive full refunds. Passengers may postpone their flights or opt for another destination and pay the difference in fares or fees.
While Singapore residents went home, airlines did what they could for transit passengers. Ms Akira Rotjanawongchai, 35, an Australian citizen en route from Adelaide, said SIA arranged for her party to stay the night at the Elizabeth Hotel.
Customers with forward bookings have been calling their travel agents to cancel or postpone them.
Chan Brothers, which has 20 people due to leave for Bangkok this week, advised customers to change their plans.
Political instability in the Thai capital in recent months has seen fewer Singaporeans heading there, say travel agents, warning that a prolonged crisis would seriously hurt Bangkok's tourism industry.
The Singapore-Bangkok air route is one of the busiest out of Changi. In the first 10 months of the year, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore recorded 2.29 million passenger movements between the two cities.
