Holiday Flights From Finland To Phuket Resumed

[george]

Holiday flights from Finland to Phuket resumed

HELSINKI: -- Some of Finland's biggest travel operators have decided to resume flights to Thailand's Phuket, six weeks after the Boxing Day tsunami catastrophe.

Aurinkomatkat, Tjäreborg, and Detur started flying tourists to hotels in the Thai resorts of Kata Beach, Karon Beach, Surin Beach, and Patong Beach on Wednesday evening. Trips to Khao Lak, which was completely devastated by the tsunami, remain cancelled.

Another travel agency, Finnmatkat, resumed trips to Phuket already on Sunday.

The tsunami aftermath has caused many Finns to make changes to their planned holidays in Southeast Asia. A third of Detur's clients have cancelled their trips to Thailand.

Tjäreborg has also had a number of cancellations, but most of their clients have simply switched from Phuket to alternative destinations in Thailand and elsewhere. Many Finns also travel to Bangkok and to Gulf Coast resorts such as Hua Hin and Ko Samui, which were naturally unaffected by the waves in the Andaman Sea and Indian Ocean.

--Helsingin Sanomat, FI, 2005-02-10