Close to 200 passengers are stranded in Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland, according to Nirun Teeranartsin, Suvarnabhumi Airport director.
“Since the eruption, we have had 115 flights from Bangkok to affected cities and vice versa that have been cancelled,” Nirun says.
“The Thai passengers stay home and wait for the flights to resume. The close to 200 people, who are stranded here now are all foreigners – and only very few are transit passengers.”
Monday morning, Nirun Teeranartsin called in representatives of the airlines that have had cancelled flights to ask them to help care for their stranded passengers.
“Frankly, I think the airlines should take care of their customers. But meanwhile we are happy to help them,” he says.
The airport has turned a corner of B1 floor as a temporary shelter for the stranded passengers, where they are treated with temporary beds, towels, drinks, and internet.
“We have set up mobile phone charging stations, today we established 20 laptops with internet connections so they can communicate with friends and family back home about their delay.”
Nirun Teeranartsin mentioned that he had a friend who was stranded in Oslo. He called and said he would be delayed. Then he took the train to Rome and flew back to Bangkok from there. Similarly, he expects that passengers who are in a hurry have most likely found other flights back to unaffected airports in Europe and taken the train home from there.
Nirun noted that the cancellation does not financially affect Airports of Thailand, which operates the airport, as these stranded passengers still have to board planes back to their hometowns.