Cargo flights resume from Thai airport

Thailand - Cargo flights have begun flying out of the besieged Suvarnabhumi airport in Thailand, after a week-long shutdown caused by anti-government protesters.

K-Mile Air, a unit of Kuala Lumpur-based Transmile Group was the first to fly its cargo plane out of the troubled airport on Tuesday, Kasem Jariyawong, president of the Thai Airfreight Forwarders Association said.

Airport officials told Reuters the airport has been cleared for pure cargo flights to resume operations on Tuesday, December 2.

Other Asian carriers like Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Qantas and Malaysian Airline Systems are expected to resume cargo flights as soon as shippers are ready.

"The cargo planes are ready but shippers need time to repack their cargoes, which have earlier been moved out of the airport after they were delayed by the protest. It takes time to truck them back there," Serirat Prasutanond, MD of Airports of Thailand told Reuters.

DHL said volumes went up some 60% on the day the airport was cleared for all-cargo takeoffs. "We've resumed regular operations from the Suvarnabhumi Airport, but we still have our air and road contingency plans in place to ensure our customers' shipments keep moving on a timely basis," said Stephen Fenwick, senior vice president of operations at DHL Express Asia Pacific.

The company said it increased its air and road operations to cater to the surge in volumes since the airport shut a week earlier.

"Once news of the airport closure broke, we put a 4-5 flight rotations a day from Singapore and Hong Kong to Thailand using regional airports to handle the increased volumes. In addition, we doubled our road capacity and added a weekend service to meet the surge in demand," Fenwick said.

The Suvarnabhumi Airport handles approximately 1,500 tonnes of export cargo, 1,000 tonnes of imports and 600 tonnes of transit cargo per day. A prolonged closure of the airport is expected to seriously dent the export-driven Thai economy already straining to cope with a global economic slowdown.