Airline strands 300 Chinese tourists at Phuket Airport

[webfact]

Airline strands 300 Chinese tourists at Phuket Airport
Darawan Naknakhon


City Airways operates five Boeing B737-400 aircraft.

PHUKET: -- Three hundred Chinese tourists have been stranded in Phuket since Sunday (August 9) when the charter aircraft that was supposed to pick them up broke down in Bangkok.

The aircraft is operated by City Airways, a small airline owned by a group of Thai, Chinese and Hong Kong investors. The airline’s first flight took place in October 2012, the start of a charter service between Hong Kong and Bangkok, using a 170-seat Boeing 737-400 aircraft. It now has five of these aircraft.

Alerted by the director of the Phuket Tourism & Sports office, Santi Pawai, the recently appointed Chinese Consul in Phuket, Wang Huijuan, is now in discussions with the airline.

“We know about this issue," one of her staff told The Phuket News. "We are already cooperating with the airline to get these people home.”

Two hundred of the passengers have been put up in hotels in Phuket at the airline’s expense, and are going on free tours while the airline tries to sort out the problem. Another 100 are still at the airport hoping to be on the first available flight out.

All 300 were originally due to fly out between Sunday and today (August 12).

This is not the first time City Airways has had delays; it recently had a similar issue, stranding passengers at Bangkok’s Don Meuang Airport.

Thai Civil Aviation Department Director General Woradet Hanprasert was quoted after that incident as saying that the airline had not notified his office of any remedies for that first occasion, and City Airways had been ordered to suspend flights for a few days until it could give satisfactory answers.

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/airline-strands-300-chinese-tourists-at-phuket-airport-47821.php

[pn]2014-08-12[/pn]

[chotthee]

The Chinese are well compensated by free hotels, free tour, and most important of all, FREE VISA for Chinese offered by Prayuth.

[pgrahmm]

Laughing - - - they turn out to be poor/badly mannered/behaved tourists/guests - - - - - and now they can't get rid of them.........

[Just1Voice]

Hey, look at the bright side.  Better to break down BEFORE take off, than somewhere in mid air.

[EBlair48]

The Chinese are well compensated by free hotels, free tour, and most important of all, FREE VISA for Chinese offered by Prayuth.

 

I expect Thailand  to now  increasingly align itself with China and begin dissociating itself with  the west.   Plan accordingly.

[Zeegator]

 

The Chinese are well compensated by free hotels, free tour, and most important of all, FREE VISA for Chinese offered by Prayuth.

 

I expect Thailand  to now  increasingly align itself with China and begin dissociating itself with  the west.   Plan accordingly.

 

 

A good start would be for everyone to ignore your attempted scaremongering.

[kaorop]

Overstay! overstay! overstay!

"Warning warning warning

Fines fines fines

Black listing bla.......

Oh wait a minute, they're Chinese, we're kissing their ass,

We waive any fines and welcome back anytime."

Where are those who bleat they should have got the correct visa?

[noahvail]

What I love is the irony in, having read all the comments, seeing a Groupon advert for City Airways Bangkok-Phuket directly under the final comment. Timing is everything...

[NomadJoe]

"City Airways had been ordered to suspend flights for a few days"

 

That seems counter productive, considering.

[AloisAmrein]

Free visas for Chinese: it seems TAT prefers poor tourists in group tours who spend as little as possible and cannot go home because transported by an unreliable chinese airline. At the same time, farangs are prohibited to do visa runs and must spend their money outside of Thailand. I am sure this will have very good results for the tourist income of Thailand.

[Jimi007]

Free visas for Chinese: it seems TAT prefers poor tourists in group tours who spend as little as possible and cannot go home because transported by an unreliable chinese airline. At the same time, farangs are prohibited to do visa runs and must spend their money outside of Thailand. I am sure this will have very good results for the tourist income of Thailand.

 

A: Are you a tourist? (If I was tourist I'd get a 30 permit to stay when I came into Thailand or I could apply for a longer stay tourist visa for 60 days in my home country with up to 3 re-entries.)

B: Are you a person without a proper long stay non immigrant visa? (I have a proper long stay visa and have had one for many years.)

C:  It has nothing to do with TAT that you and others don't follow the immigration laws here. There are many ways to stay here legally… 

[Jimi007]

 

The Chinese are well compensated by free hotels, free tour, and most important of all, FREE VISA for Chinese offered by Prayuth.

 

I expect Thailand  to now  increasingly align itself with China and begin dissociating itself with  the west.   Plan accordingly.

 

 

LOL! Your crystal has been lying to you yet again… 

[gemini81]

 

 

The Chinese are well compensated by free hotels, free tour, and most important of all, FREE VISA for Chinese offered by Prayuth.

 

I expect Thailand  to now  increasingly align itself with China and begin dissociating itself with  the west.   Plan accordingly.

 

 

A good start would be for everyone to ignore your attempted scaremongering.

 

 

Its not- have a look around at the facts and points he stated- its true that it is quickly headed that way.

[Carl64]

Mental note.... Never fly city airlines... NEVER!

[Carl64]

What's all the crap about free visas for Chinese. I have never paid for my tourist visas!
Get over it!

[jacko45k]

Free visas for Chinese: it seems TAT prefers poor tourists in group tours who spend as little as possible and cannot go home because transported by an unreliable chinese airline. At the same time, farangs are prohibited to do visa runs and must spend their money outside of Thailand. I am sure this will have very good results for the tourist income of Thailand.

 

I don't know about their spending habits in relation to other tourists.

They seem to get whizzed around from attraction to attraction and don't have a minute to themselves unplanned.

I would be interested to know how much it costs them to see a few drugged up tatty tigers compared to the 450 baht a Western tourist pays, they arrive by coach and get given stickers.

 

The prevention of 'Visa Runs' isn't going to limit Western tourists in the slightest, in fact they can get a 30 day 'Visa Exemption' at the airport, and then a 30 day extension in country.  They will still be spending money inside Thailand.

 

 

[IamNoone88]

Interesting. A 170 seat aircraft and 300 stranded passengers. There is more to this than technical breakdown - which usually takes a few hours to fix or re-position and aircraft.

[SCARLETIBIS1]

Interesting. A 170 seat aircraft and 300 stranded passengers. There is more to this than technical breakdown - which usually takes a few hours to fix or re-position and aircraft.

The Chinese are kinda cheap. They sit on each other's laps in the airplane.  LOL

[96tehtarp]

In the not too distant past there was a large international airline which is well known in the region. It was affectionately dubbed "Tomorrow Go".

 

The headline in the OP is misleading. These Chinese tourists are not stranded, they are delayed.

Edited August 13, 2014 by 96tehtarp

[Loptr]

What's all the crap about free visas for Chinese. I have never paid for my tourist visas!
Get over it!

 

Really? Pray tell how you get a tourist visa for free? 

[Loptr]

 

Interesting. A 170 seat aircraft and 300 stranded passengers. There is more to this than technical breakdown - which usually takes a few hours to fix or re-position and aircraft.

The Chinese are kinda cheap. They sit on each other's laps in the airplane.  LOL

 

 

And mind the silverware!!! 

[Carrerakiss]

 

 

The Chinese are well compensated by free hotels, free tour, and most important of all, FREE VISA for Chinese offered by Prayuth.

 
I expect Thailand  to now  increasingly align itself with China and begin dissociating itself with  the west.   Plan accordingly.
 

 
A good start would be for everyone to ignore your attempted scaremongering.
 

 
Its not- have a look around at the facts and points he stated- its true that it is quickly headed that way.

So what? Maybe things will be better, stay the same, or be worse. But what planning is required? You think all Thai are going to speak Chinese and its best to learn to speak Mandarin?

Better you worry about crossing the road safely or avoiding a driving accident, because those are far more up close and present dangers than some vague notion of Thailand gravitating toward a Chinese sphere of influence.

[Carrerakiss]

Interesting. A 170 seat aircraft and 300 stranded passengers. There is more to this than technical breakdown - which usually takes a few hours to fix or re-position and aircraft.

Maybe the plane has missed two trips? But I agree the repairs are taking extraordinarily long. More likely the company can't afford to buy fuel, lol.

[monkey4u]

Interesting. A 170 seat aircraft and 300 stranded passengers. There is more to this than technical breakdown - which usually takes a few hours to fix or re-position and aircraft.

Maybe this company allow 130 people to stand for the flight  

[nullx8]

there is a magical thing in this world .. called "Charter flights"

this would have prevented the peoples from stranding at all, save face if the thai shareholders, bypass the suspention and whatever ..

oh i forgot .. that would have cost a few bucks ... sorry i forgot about that

[captspectre]

Laughing - - - they turn out to be poor/badly mannered/behaved tourists/guests - - - - - and now they can't get rid of them.........

 

bad mannered? how so? I don't see them walking down the street half naked with a bottle of booze in their hand and hair down to their shoulders, I don't see them in drunken brawls and stinking to high heaven because they are afraid of water< of course they are from China, not austrailia or england.

[ChrisY1]

 

What's all the crap about free visas for Chinese. I have never paid for my tourist visas!
Get over it!

 

Really? Pray tell how you get a tourist visa for free? 

 

 

Likewise.....I have a retirement visa now....but for the past 20 years of coming to Thailand....never once paid.....only had 30 day tourist visas each time...
 

[lvr181]

 

 

 

The Chinese are well compensated by free hotels, free tour, and most important of all, FREE VISA for Chinese offered by Prayuth.

 

I expect Thailand  to now  increasingly align itself with China and begin dissociating itself with  the west.   Plan accordingly.

 

 

A good start would be for everyone to ignore your attempted scaremongering.

 

 

Its not- have a look around at the facts and points he stated- its true that it is quickly headed that way.

 

 

What's the big deal about Visa? I am western farang with FREE Visa.

[ajarnmark]

Hey, look at the bright side.  Better to break down BEFORE take off, than somewhere in mid air.

 

Lucky it was not Malaysian Arlines, only they can do it in mid-air...
 

[smew]

Cheap flights.. Cheap tourists.. Cheap people from china.. What did you expect..... High end visitors staying at 5 star and blowing money right left and centre?...