Thai airports lively welcome int'l passengers during Songkran

BANGKOK, April 11 (TNA) - Thai airports, all overseen by Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited (AOT), now lively welcome rising international passengers during the ongoing Songkran or Water Splashing Festival across the Kingdom. Rawiwan Nettrakhawetssana, Director of Thailand's main Sunvarnabhumi International Airport, told journalists of the development on Friday, saying that both local and foreign travelers have been crowding Thai airports since Thursday night, as earlier expected, with those using Suvarnabhumi International Airport alone foreseen to increase by 40,000-50,000 daily from April 9-17, from, normally, 120,000 daily on average, as both domestic and international airlines have increased their flights by 260 flights totally during the ongoing Songkran or Traditional Thai New Year Festival, amid intensified security measures with an increase of security officers, both police and soldiers, by 10 per cent. The AOT assessed in a latest report that flights and passengers at six Thai airports across the country, including Suvarnbhumi International Airport, Don Mueang Airport, Chiang Mai Airport, Mae Fah Luang Airport in Chiang Rai, Hat Yai Airport in Songkhla and Phuket Airport, should total 18,440 flights and 2.73 million passengers from April 9-18, 2014, a 15 per cent and 8 per cent year-on-year increase respectively. To facilitate the rising international passengers, Rawiwan acknowledged, the AOT has also set up coordination centres at all the six airports. According to the director, a booth where international passengers are welcome to bathe or pour perfumed water on the Buddha impage, as a gesture of worship, has also been set up at each airport, not only to demonstrate and promote a Thai tradition during the annual Songkran or Water Splashing Festival, but also to bring good luck to them. Meanwhile, several Thai provinces have also started celebrating the Songkran Festival with propitious ceremonies and events to conserve traditional Thai cultures, namely those on bathing or pouring perfumed water on the Buddha image, or sacred or revered provincial statues, or on the palms of the elderly or their parents. In Nakhon Phanom Province in the Thai Northeast, the Songkran Festival under the provincial theme of "Happy Thai-Lao New Year on Kao Pun Road" has been organised and Wattanatham Road has been closed for alms giving and off-season offering ceremonies to Buddhist monks, in which both Thai and Lao people are welcome to join. In Naratiwat Province in the Thai far South, a procession of Miss Songkran was organised, along with a welcome for people to bathe or pour perfumed water on the Buddha image and on the palms of the elderly. In Songkhla Province, also in the Thai far South, crowds of tourists from neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore are crossing the Sadao border pass to join Songkran celebrations organised in several southern Thai areas, including those in Hat Yai, Thailand's southern business hub, in Songkhla. (TNA)