Brunei's Local News - Brudirect.com

Bandar Seri Begawan - In light of the recent announcement that Thailand's Suvarnabhumi International Airport will re-open Royal Brunei Airlines (RBA) wishes to announce that the airlines have commenced preparations to resume its services to Bangkok.

According to a statement issued by the national carrier yesterday, RBA plans to operate its scheduled flight BI5I7, which departs from Bandar Seri Begawan to Bangkok on December 5 at 6.05pm via a Boeing 767-300 ER.

The B767 is a larger aircraft with a higher passenger capacity than the Airbus A320 that normally operates flights to Bangkok. This move will allow the airlines to fly out remaining passengers who have been stranded by the closure of Bangkok's airports on November 25, 2008.

"RBA's eight-times-a-week service to Bangkok is an important part of our route network and

restarting our services there will allow us to re-establish Bangkok as an important hub," said RBA Chief Executive Officer Ray Sayer.

As the flight situation may still change, RBA urges its passengers with bookings to Bangkok to call the RBA reservations office at 2212222 for further information. RBA indefinitely suspended flights to and from Bangkok on November 26, 2008, following the forced closure of Suvarnabhumi International Airport.

Thousands of anti-government protesters stormed the international airport in a takeover seen as the latest escalation in a sometimes violent four-month campaign by the People's Alliance for Democracy to topple Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat's government.

A Thai court yesterday banned the Prime Minister from politics for five years and his party disbanded. The closure of two Bangkok airports has seen about 250,000 travellers stranded. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times