Bangkok, Thailand, Nov. 29 (CNA) There were still many Taiwanese travelers stranded in the capital of Thailand Saturday even though Taiwan’s two carriers, China Airlines (CAL) and EVA Airways Corp., dispatched special flights the previous day to bring their stranded passengers home.

As flights at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport remained grounded due to a siege by anti-government protestors, the CAL and EVA Airways flights landed in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand and at Utapao airport in Pattaya, some 140 kilometers away.

However, for passengers holding tickets for travel on other airlines, it might take longer for them to get back to Taiwan. A Taiwanese passenger, surnamed Chen, said that his wife who has a ticket for a Thai Airways flight to Australia is stranded.

“Over the past days, she has been trying through the Thai Airways Bangkok office to obtain a seat. Although she has a ticket, there’s no flight, ” Chen said. He himself was preparing to take a CAL flight to return Taiwan.

With the Suvarnabhumi airport closed since Tuesday, Utapao Airport from Thursday became a substitute terminal for all foreign commercial airlines to pick up their passengers stranded in Bangkok.

Since then, traffic on the road to Utapao airport has grown heavy and the airport itself is packed with planes, a tour guide from Taiwan told the Central News Agency.

Chen Wei-tao, a manager of the CAL airport office in Thailand, said CAL flights are being delayed 2-3 hours at Utapao airport because the airport is not equipped with adequate services, such as fueling vehicles and ground personnel, to facilitate the current 50 or so flights a day.

Thai police began gathering outside the Suvarnabhumi airport late Friday. According to a foreign newswire report, the protestors inside the terminal have vowed to continue their occupation of the airport until they achieve their goal of toppling the elected government led by Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat.

On Thursday, Somchai declared a state of emergency in areas around the Suvarnabhumi airport and the smaller Don Mueang airport, but the army refused to disperse the protestors, the report said. (By Lin Ching-pin & Elizabeth Hsu)