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Thai airports lost $72m

zujjkiol

Alfrescian
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BANGKOK - THAILAND'S airports announced a loss of US$48 million (S$72.7 million) in the last quarter of 2008 amid a blockade of its two Bangkok hubs and a poor global economic climate, the airport authority said on Monday.

Airports of Thailand (AOT) issued a statement revealing a loss of 1.68 billion baht between October and December last year compared to a profit of nearly 340 million baht for the same period in 2007.

The poor figures came 'as a result of the world financial crisis and the economic slowdown... together with the domestic unrest situation at the end of November 2008', AOT senior executive Supaporn Burapakusolsri said.

Demonstrators opposed to the previous government occupied the capital's international Suvarnabhumi and domestic Don Muang airports in Bangkok last year for more than a week until Dec 4.

The blockade left hundreds of thousands of visitors stranded and prevented 3.4 million tourists from visiting Thailand, severely denting the kingdom's tourist-friendly image.

The protesters from the royalist People's Alliance for Democracy movement dispersed after a court verdict brought down the government.

But the closures cost the national economy 290 billion baht (US$12.6 billion), according to a central bank study released in January.

The same study predicted that tourist arrivals in Thailand this year would fall 8.8 per cent year on year to 12.8 million.

Thailand's tourism industry accounts for five per cent of gross domestic product and employs some two million people or up to seven percent of the country's total workforce. -- AFP
 
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