BANGKOK: Anti-government protesters ended their paralysing eight-day blockade of Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport yesterday, allowing for the resumption of the first handful of flights and raising the hopes of thousands of stranded travellers.

A Thai Airways domestic flight from Phuket with about 300 passengers was the first to land, touching down shortly after 2 pm, followed shortly by the first international flight, a Royal Jordanian airliner from Amman.

As protesters quit the Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports, some cargo flights resumed yesterday. More international flights – bound for Italy, Australia and Japan – were scheduled for midnight.

The momentum is expected to pick up slowly over the next few days. Carriers like Air Asia expect to be back tomorrow.

Airport officials yesterday could not confirm when full operations would resume. Said Airports of Thailand acting president Serirat Prasutanond: ‘We’re trying hard to ensure that the airport can be reopened by Dec 15.’ Time was needed, he explained, for computer system checks and security sweeps.

Protesters from the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) had shut down traffic at the airports in their six-month campaign to bring down the Somchai government, which they accuse of being a corrupt proxy of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Their occupation stranded over 300,000 travellers and dealt a serious blow to the economy, hitting tourism, freight forwarders and the electronics and agriculture sectors.

Yesterday, still cheering Tuesday’s sacking of the government by the Constitutional Court for electoral fraud, thousands of yellow-shirted PAD supporters packed up their belongings and left the Suvarnabhumi terminal.

As they departed, some lined up for autographs from PAD leaders Chamlong Srimuang and Sondhi Limthongkul.

Within the airport complex, some of the flight schedule display screens had failed. Staff of retail stores scrubbed windows and dumped rotten food.

While the terminal looked relatively clean, Lufthansa managing director Christian Altmann noted that more than cleanliness was at issue. For the airlines, critical areas included their own IT systems, the control tower, and baggage handling.

‘For us, the important thing is an official note from the airport authorities that they are ready to operate fully. The last such note said they would be ready at 5pm local time this Friday,’ he said.

Lufthansa, like several other airlines, had rerouted flights to Phuket. Once an official note was received, they would have to decide on a switchover to start flying into Bangkok again, Mr Altmann said.

The full extent of the cost has yet to be added up, but Thai Airways International has said it would sue the PAD for revenue loss of about 20 billion baht (S$860 million) during the forced closure.

Thailand’s political troubles are far from over. Members of the royalist PAD say respect for the King was one reason for their quitting the airport. The spectre of renewed tension after the King’s birthday on Dec 5 remains very real, especially next week when Parliament convenes and a new premier is chosen.

As they left, some PAD members warned that if another Thaksin ‘nominee’ is chosen as premier, the barricades would be up again.

Airport blockade ends