Emergency flights to repatriate stranded passengers from Thailand to Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi: Hundreds of stranded passengers in Thailand will be flown into Abu Dhabi by special relief flights, the first of which will arrive at Abu Dhabi airport on Saturday, a senior Etihad Airways official told Gulf News.

“Those flights have been set up as part of a project to fly back to Abu Dhabi stranded passengers in Thailand after the closure of the country's major international airports in Bangkok,'' said Ann Tulis, manager of Etihad Corporate Communications.

A Boeing 777 with a capacity of 378 passengers will operate from U-Taphao, about 150 kilometres east of Bangkok, to Abu Dhabi.

“We have not managed yet to calculate the number of stranded passengers but we have secured all the permissions to operate the flights'', the Etihad official said. “The plan depends on the availability of the aircraft, the available slots into the airport and will be dependent on the situation in Thailand.''

The airline has been operating a double daily service to the Bangkok airport but was forced to suspend its flights on Wednesday after opposition demonstrators occupied the main international Bangkok airport demanding the prime minister resignation.

The airline official said that her airline Thailand flights have been normally very healthy in terms of seats occupancy which has been as high as 80 per cent of each of the two daily flights.

Etihad Airways have also stationed ground staff in U-Taphao to assist in operating the relief flights.