The travel branch hopes the situation will normalize following the recent occurrences in the country. Many Norwegians and Scandinavians who were stranded in Bangkok, have come home during recent days.
Most charter companies have other destinations than Bangkok in Thailand, and have been little affected by closed airports.
Turoperatøren Apollo had 243 Scandinavian guests, among them 31 Norwegians, who ended up stuck a few days in Bangkok. The last of them arrived home on Tuesday,” Helen Begby informs, as information leader for Apollo.
“We contacted those who should have travelled to Bangkok before 6th December, and were able to re-book for other destinations. We have no trips to Bangkok now until later in December, and we hope that the airport is open then.”
Begby is not under the impression that those who have booked Christmas trips are scared about the unrest. Almost none of the 500 or so Apollo passengers at Christmas are bound for Bangkok, and not a single Thailand-passenger has cancelled.
“We expect they will have a good Christmas in Thailand, but we are following the situation closely, and put the customers’ security first,” says the information leader for Apollo.
The sales director, Christian Grønli of Ving Norge is also counting on normal Christmas traffic to Thailand. Ving is sending around 700 Norwegian tourists to the country at Christmas.
“We have no trips to Bangkok. Our destinations are Krabi and Phuket, and it has been peaceful there,” says Grønli.
“We have had some telephone calls about the situation in Thailand, but as people have come to understand that the unrest has been isolated to Bangkok, things have calmed down. We have had one or two cancellations, but that is normal. There is hardly anyone who cancels because of the unrest in the country.”
Many of the Norwegian and Scandinavian travellers who were stranded at the main airport in Bangkok after it was occupied last week, have now arrived home.
Both Finnair and SAS have found alternative solutions for getting the customers home from Bangkok. The military airport, U.Tapao and the airport in Phuket have been used.
Brynjar Balstad from Vanvikan in Trøndelag arrived home on Sunday after getting a place on an airplane from U-Tapao.
“I was among the lucky ones who got a seat. The trip went fine for me, but many older people and families with children had a rough time. It took six – seven hours to check in at the airport before we were flown to Copenhagen,” says Balstad.
