PHUKET International Airport's chart of flights in and out today was a patchwork of red, green and black.

The red marked cancelled flights, the black marked regular scheduled flights, and the green marked special relief flights.

The Phuket International Airport general manager, Wicha Nurnlop, sent a mobile telephone text message to reporters today, comparing the anti-government protest group, the Peoples Alliance for Democracy, with former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

''These people have to leave Bangkok's airports right now,'' he said. ''Otherwise they are proving they are no different to Khun Thaksin.

''The protest is almost as damaging to the country.''

Tourism and Sport Minister Weerasak Kowsurat indicated the scale of the growing crisis, saying that the number of foreign tourists stranded in Thailand has reached 240,000.

He added that he would ask for a special financial package worth 10 billion baht to help small and medium-sized operators in tourism and related industries.

On Phuket, Australia had three representatives from the embassy in Bangkok on the check-in concourse, helping passengers to sort out their problems.

Most airlines had notices posted on doorways, telling people which flights were full and what the coming days hold in terms of flights out.

A special desk set up by Airports of Thailand and the Thai Hotels Association offered the alternative of a bus ride to Bangkok for 800 baht, an offer that many were taking up.

The THA was making suggestions about alternative accommodation for tourists who were unable to get off Phuket.

Earlier in the day, Vice Governor Vorapot Rattasima told journalists that about 600 passengers had headed for Bangkok so far on buses supplied by the provincial government since November 27.

The journalists were told that 24 countries have now issued travel warnings.

Travel industry leaders from around Thailand were believed to be heading for a summit in Pattaya to discuss the disastrous consequences of the airports protest.

Fourteen extra flights were due out of Phuket on Monday as the island coped with the immediate needs of thousands of stranded tourists.

There were no signs of panic at Phuket airport today, only real signs, the ones telling of cancelled flights and possible delays, posted outside airline offices.

TOURISTS are on the move up and down the country in the desperate search for an exit out of Thailand, as the anti-government protesters' occupation of Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports continues.

Hundreds of people have been loaded onto chartered buses for the 12-hour journey from Bangkok to Phuket over the past few days as their airlines and governments scramble to arrange their flights home from Phuket International Airport.

Others have arranged their own transport down from the capital, in the hopes of catching a flight.

Major airlines that do not normally operate at Phuket airport have been seen flying in and out on special flights, including Qantas, which is flying 300 back to Australia via Singapore tonight. Another Qantas flight is scheduled to leave Phuket tomorrow night.

Finnair added four extra flights from Saturday to fly stranded passengers back home.

Air France-KLM is set to take nearly 380 stranded passengers out of Phuket at 7pm tonight, in a special fight for Amsterdam via Kuala Lumpur.

Air France Supervisor Sukontip Konsua told Phuketwan that the flight was set up by Air France specifically for stranded tourists. Another Air France plane carrying up to 400 passengers will depart Phuket tomorrow at 11:30pm, bound for Paris.

Staff from the French Embassy and government organizations in Thailand have been on hand to take care of guests, she says.

There might be more Air France flights in the coming days, but none have been confirmed yet, she says.

Dragonair was set to run a special direct flight to Hong Kong today, carrying mostly Cathay Pacific passengers unable to fly out of Bangkok.

A Malaysia Airline executive says regular flights from Phuket have been fully booked since the closure of both Bangkok airports by anti-government protesters last week.

On November 29 and 30 MAL used larger aircraft on its regularly scheduled flights in order to accommodate the growing number of tourists on the hunt for flights home via Kuala Lumpur.

AirAsia, which operates out of Suvarnabhumi airport, has been hit hard by the closure. A total of 106 scheduled flights for today were cancelled, including eight due to travel to or from Phuket.

An announcement about special flights for Phuket airport will be made after 4pm today, says an AirAsia representative.

Bangkok Airways has had to cancel three flights scheduled to run to or from Phuket today, says an airline official who asked not to be named. Flights between Koh Samui and U-Tapao are in operation.

No special flights have been added for today, but two days ago Bangkok Airways ran a special Phuket-U-Tapao-Phuket flight that carried a total of 140 people.

The official says that people who booked tickets directly from the airline would be eligible for a 100 percent refund if they were unable to reschedule cancelled flights. If they booked through a travel agent, however, they would have to discuss refund or credit options directly with the agent.

JetStar is running a special flight tomorrow from Phuket to Melbourne, which will depart at 10pm. The airplane has capacity of 300 people. JetStar normally has three regular flights per week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday between Phuket and Sydney -- these are running on schedule, says an airline executive.

Most of the passengers on the special flight are those who had previously booked flights on other airlines that were cancelled.

Thai Airways is operating three flights today: two between Phuket and U-Tapao and one from Phuket to Frankfurt, says a THAI staffer who asked not to be named.

There should be more flights in operation after today since the People's Alliance for Democracy today allowed THAI to fly its planes out of Suvarnabhumi airport, the Thai News Agency reports.

Most planes released will be flown to U-Tapao airport, which THAI is operating out of while the Bangkok airports remain closed, and it is expected that some of these will be used for more Phuket based routes in the coming days.



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