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SINGAPORE: Phuket International Airport re-opened on Sunday afternoon after anti-government protests caused it to close on Friday.
All flights were cancelled until a Thai Airways test flight touched down at 3.40pm on Sunday. At 5.30pm, SilkAir said it plans to fly three planes to Phuket on Sunday evening.
The planes can carry a total of 438 passengers, but there will still be a backlog of some 600 people. SilkAir will resume its normal service to Phuket on Monday.
Some stranded Singaporeans, however, had already made their own travel plans to return home. Among the stranded tourists were Emeric Lau and his two friends who were supposed to fly back to Singapore on Saturday evening.
Lau said: "When we were making enquiries at the reception, we overheard three or four parties of Singaporeans discussing what to do and how they could get out of Phuket. Some of them seemed to be liaising, making arrangements with the hotel.
"Generally, we've seen a few cases of irate passengers who are not happy because of the uncertainty of the situation."
Not knowing when the airport would re-open, Lau and his friends teamed up with a couple from Hong Kong to make plans for their return trip. With help from the hotel receptionist, they rented a mini-bus with a driver for 15,000 baht or US$440 (S$625) for a ten-hour journey to Bangkok.
Singapore Airlines had earlier promised to fly passengers who were booked on SilkAir flights back to Singapore free of charge if they made their own way to Bangkok.
"Thank goodness for travel insurance and thank goodness for a strong Singapore dollar. It does help us in a situation like that... (The journey) has been mostly smooth; we've been averaging 80km per hour driving through small towns. It's been quite scenic – very nice, very pleasant journey," said Lau.
Despite learning that the Phuket airport was re-opening, the group decided to continue their overland journey to Bangkok to avoid the chaos.
- CNA/so
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