Stranded in Bangkok since last Wednesday, purchasing manager Tang Wai Leong finally made it back to Singapore yesterday evening. He managed to get on an SIA flight out of U-Tapao, which he described as small and under-equipped, not even having X-ray machines to check baggage. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEE
AFTER more than six days in transit, a group of 50 Singaporeans is finally on its way home.
Members of the church group, who were stranded in Bangkok after protesters swarmed the international airport, started their trip back to Singapore with a 12-hour overnight coach ride to Phuket yesterday. They expect to take the two-hour flight to Singapore at 1.30pm today.
For flights out
Singapore Airlines: Will make two flights daily from U-Tapao from now till Wednesday.
Call +66-2353-6000 or +65-6223-8888 and provide contact details so staff can call back.
'We just want to get out of here,' said Mr Joshua Goh, 30, one of the group members from local church Bethesda Cathedral. They had meant to stop in Bangkok for only a few hours last Wednesday, after a 12-day Israel trip.
Late on Sunday night, the group's leader, Mr Leong Sow Hoe, 48, met Singapore Embassy staff, who helped them get tickets home.
Stuck in transit, the group has been holed up at the Siam City Hotel with hundreds of other Singaporeans since last Wednesday, its members said.
Singapore carriers told The Straits Times that they had flown over 3,000 passengers back since the siege started, mostly Singaporeans.
With both Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports now under siege, limited flights - two from Singapore Airlines and one from Jetstar Asia - have been flying in from the nearest airfield U-Tapao, a tiny military air base 140km from Bangkok.
Singaporeans disembarking from SQ8103 yesterday evening said U-Tapao airport was 'a back-dated, Vietnam War-era kind of airport'.
Said purchasing manager Tang Wai Leong, 43: 'Tickets were written by hand, there were no X-ray machines and our bags were opened for checks.'
Fruit grocer Tan Siong Seng, 58, like other passengers, estimated that 'there must have been at least 10,000 people at U-Tapao'.
Mr Tan and his wife - who had been visiting relatives in Bangkok - lined up for hours at the Singapore Airlines office in Bangkok over four days before the waiting game paid off and they got hold of tickets home.
Yesterday morning, the couple left at 5.30am to take a three-hour taxi ride to U-Tapao airport, queuing for another three hours to check in, clear customs and board the flight.
'The queue was moving so slowly that if we were late, we might have missed the flight,' he said.
Airlines are struggling to meet demand from passengers impatient to leave the Thai capital, and others who have ventured to Phuket to try to get flights out.
U-Tapao facilities are basic and 'not at all up to the requirements of major international passenger traffic', said Singapore Airlines spokesman Stephen Forshaw.
'Flights are experiencing lengthy delays simply because the facilities can't cope with the volume of traffic...For example, refuelling an aircraft is taking several hours.'
Added Jetstar Asia's commercial head Raphael Saw: 'The biggest challenge we face is in knowing the exact number of passengers that will show up.' The airline said it has flown about 400 Singaporeans back since last Friday.
Airlines said all flights from U-Tapao and Phuket have been returning to Singapore fully loaded. Tiger Airways spokesman Matt Hobbs said the airline was adding an additional three flights to its usual schedule of two flights daily from Phuket to Singapore, because of the high demand, with planes 'chock-a-block' on the return journey.
'It seems that more and more people are moving from Bangkok to Phuket to get onto flights,' he said.
