| 26 December 2004 (Bloomberg) –
As many as 10,000 British holiday makers
may be in the areas affected by an earthquake
and tidal waves that killed more than 6,500
people in Asia today, the Association of
British Travel Agents said.
``The staff on the ground are trying to
locate and account for everybody who they
have on their books, but this is proving
difficult as there are many islands with
no phone contact,'' said, Keith Betton,
head of corporate affairs at ABTA.
The quake, measuring 8.9 on the Richter
scale, created tidal waves as high as 10
meters that engulfed coastal areas in Indonesia,
Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, India
and Malaysia. Aftershocks were felt across
2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles).
The Foreign Office set up an emergency
helpline for information. The number is
(44) (20) 7008 0000. Areas affected include
Phuket, in Thailand, Tamil Nadu, in India,
Trincomalee, in Sri Lanka, Aceh, in Indonesia,
and Penang in Malaysia.
The U.K. government has offered ``practical
assistance'' to India, Thailand, Malaysia,
Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Foreign Secretary
Jack Straw said in an e-mailed statement.
``We are doing everything we can to assist
but the disruption to communication in the
worst-affected areas is inevitably making
it difficult to confirm exactly the situation
on the ground,'' Straw said. ``Our staff
in London are in close touch with the Association
of British Travel Agents and the airlines.''
German Flights
TUI AG, Europe's largest tour operator,
is canceling flights to Sri Lanka, the Maldives
and Phuket until Dec. 31, said Anja Braun,
a spokeswoman. This will affect 200 passengers
and the company currently has 700 customers
in the three locations. TUI has the capacity
to bring passengers back to Germany, she
said.
Thomas Cook AG, Europe's second-largest
tour operator, is sending three empty flights
today to Phuket, to Male, Maldives, and
to Colombo, Sri Lanka, to bring back customers
to Germany.
Thomas Cook has about 4,000 German customers
in those locations, spokesman Rolf-Dieter
Grass said. The company won't fly any new
passengers to those destinations, he said.
ABDA said tour operators' charter flights
will leave the U.K. for the Maldives tonight
as scheduled, providing the airlines can
get landing permission. These planes will
bring back those passengers who were already
due to return.
``The tour operators are doing the job
of collating the information of who's safe
and who isn't accounted for,'' Betton said.
``They'll share that with the Foreign office
and the picture will become clearer in a
few days. My advice would be to do nothing
at the moment, as nothing is going to make
anyone safer.''
Europe's largest airlines say their scheduled
flights to India, Sri Lanka and Southeast
Asia are unaffected.
Air Services
A British Airways Plc flight that left
London yesterday for Chennai, India, wasn't
affected, said a spokeswoman for the airline.
The Dec. 28 flight to Chennai is expected
to go ahead normally, as is a daily journey
to Bangkok, she said.
Spokesmen for Air France-KLM Group, Europe's
biggest airline, and Deutsche Lufthansa
AG, Europe's third-largest carrier, also
said flights are going ahead normally.
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