BangkokPost-Mar 12

More than 40,000 European tourists stranded here by flight disruptions in the Middle East have safely returned home, aided by the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand’s (CAAT) temporary approval for tour operators in the originating countries to send charter flights to retrieve them. Suladda Sarutilavan, executive director of Europe at the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), said since the war erupted on Feb 28 the TAT offices in Europe have received multiple requests from tour companies seeking coordination to assist their tourists stranded in Thailand and other countries, asking for support to escort their customers back home via Thai airports. She said the agency contacted CAAT to relay tour companies’ difficulties in sending charter flights to Thailand due to regulations that prohibit charter flights from selling oneway tickets to tourists. Since March 3, CAAT responded to the request by granting temporary permission for chartered flights to operate empty aircraft to Thailand for evacuation. Ms Suladda said this coordination originated from a case involving ITAKA, one of the largest tour operators in Poland, which contacted the TAT’s Prague office for assistance with a group of 18 tourists travelling to Australia. The group was scheduled to return to Warsaw via Doha on Feb 28 but was unable to do so due to airspace closures. The tour company purchased tickets for the tourists to travel to Bangkok, then board a charter flight back to Warsaw. Another case involved 315 tourists from Nordic countries that were stranded for more than a week across several destinations in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. The TAT coordinated with CAAT to allow Sunclass Airlines of the Ving Group to send a charter flight to pick up the customers on March 8, and the tourists arrived in Copenhagen on March 9. Ms Suladda said assistance efforts have continued since the TAT activated the Tourism Crisis Monitoring Centre to keep track of rising tensions in the Gulf region. However, it remains difficult to determine the actual number of tourists still stranded in Thailand, as some are individual travelers without agents and have not contacted hotels or authorities for help. Read more at: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/general/3215043/thailand-sends-40000-stranded-europeans-home.