Concern mounts at Thai airport security lapses

[fft100]

I think this is going to run and run and suspect that BKK's plan to be the hub for south east asia is now in tatters.


By David Fox
BANGKOK, Dec 4 (Reuters) - As Thai authorities race to get Suvarnabhumi
airport ready for full international operations, airline officials and
diplomats fear major security concerns are being overlooked.
They say the ease with which a rag-tag group of anti-government
protesters took over Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports last week exposed
fundamental security problems that need to be addressed.
But with the tourist-dependent Thai economy haemorrhaging revenue as a
result of the airport closures, stakeholders feel they are being pressured into
restarting operations.
On Thursday, Bangkok-based ambassadors of some of Thailand's most
important allies and trading partners issued a joint statement saying they were
"seriously concerned" at the vulnerability to outside assaults of Suvarnabhumi
and the mostly domestic Don Muang airports.
"(We) urge the government of Thailand to take all necessary measures to
improve the protection and security of all Thai airports," said the statement,
signed by Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and
the United States.
Airline representatives in Thailand contacted by Reuters were highly
critical of the response to the airport blockades, how the emergency was dealt
with and efforts to restart operations.
None was willing to be identified. "We have to work here," said one.
"We are under enormous pressure to open -- from the airport authorities,
from stuck passengers, from shareholders, from the tourist industry ...," said
one airline official.
"But our genuine security concerns are being ignored."
Chief among those concerns are the security lapses that allowed a
supposedly state-of-the-art, $4 billion airport, opened just two years ago, to
be overrun in minutes by a few hundred protesters, even if some were armed with
clubs and metal rods.

SECURITY MELTED AWAY
Airport security initially held back the protesters a few hundred metres
(yards) from the terminal, but when pressed, they melted away.
Suvarnabhumi is a key regional hub handling hundreds of flights a day and
over 150,000 passengers. Within minutes the airport was overrun and passengers
watched -- some shocked, some initially bemused -- as the yellow-clad protesters
coursed through the terminal.
"What if they were armed terrorists? What if this was India?" one airline
official asked, referring to the attacks a day later by just 10 Islamic gunmen
in Mumbai that killed 171 people.
Some Thailand watchers justified the lack of response as being typical of
the country's delicate domestic political situation. The authorities couldn't,
or wouldn't, use force against the protesters because of their perceived support
from parts of the royal family.
Airport general manager Serirat Prasutanond, touring Suvarnabhumi on
Wednesday after the protesters finally abandoned their siege, told Reuters:
"They did no damage. They love Thailand."
But such apparently flippant dismissals of security lapses only enrage
those who insist on more professionalism.
"It is a joke," said one Singapore-based industry consultant. "If that
happened here or in Kuala Lumpur, the protesters would have been shot. Whoever
was responsible for security, they would have been shot next."
Airports of Thailand officials say Suvarnabhumi will be fully operational
by Friday afternoon after the massive, sprawling facility has been thoroughly
"sanitised" by security experts.
But operators say it will take a lot more to convince them that security
is as good as it should be.
"In the next few weeks we (foreign operators) are going to be getting
together and making a stand," one industry insider said. "Things absolutely have
to change."
"This situation cannot go on. If a major event takes place now, we will
never be able to say we didn't see it coming, that we couldn't prepare."
(Editing by Alan Raybould) Keywords: THAILAND PROTEST/SECURITY
(david.fox@reuters.com; Reuters Messaging: david.fox.reuters.com@reuters.net;
+66 2 648 9733)

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[STEVE G]

Representatives from the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the International Air Transport Association and foreign embassies will visit the airport on Friday to check on the safety and security of the airport.
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