KEY POINTS:
The evacuation of New Zealanders stranded in Bangkok was to begin today with an Air Force Hercules expected to have arrived there by early this morning.
The evacuation effort is to continue despite news that the airport, which was occupied by anti-Government protesters for eight days, should have returned to normal by tomorrow.
An estimated 230,000 travellers, including more than 200 New Zealanders, were still stuck in the city after the main Suvarnabhumi International Airport was shut down.
By yesterday, the airport had reopened for cargo flights only.
A steady flow of passenger planes had been leaving from other airports outside the capital, relieving the situation.
A Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130H Hercules departed from Brisbane at 3.45pm yesterday and was expected to arrive in Kuala Lumpur in the early hours of today.
Two Air Force crews are to alternate in an evacuation effort.
An Air Force spokeswoman said that because the situation in Bangkok was constantly changing, the aircraft would be on standby until there was direction from Prime Minister John Key.
The Hercules can carry 92 people. It was not known last night where it would take the New Zealanders, or how many trips would be required.
"I have strong confidence that everything will be okay and will be back to normal in two days," said Suvarnabhumi airport's general manager, Serirat Prasutanond, as trucks ferried the yellow-shirted demonstrators from the terminal.
He said the first international flight would land around midnight today.
The protesters, from the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which is led by a group of royalist businessmen, academics and activists, marked the end of their occupation by singing the king's anthem before they left.
Cargo flights started to leave Suvarnabhumi on Tuesday, but the occupation has dealt an enormous blow to tourism and the export sector, already reeling from the global economic crisis.
Weerasak Kowsurat, the outgoing Minister for Tourism in the ousted Government, estimated around 230,000 foreign tourists remained stranded yesterday, although some have since flown out.
"If the PAD gives back both airports, this should help speed up the process to get people home even faster," he said.
"At this point, I think, what's important is to get them home as soon as possible."
Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat was banned from politics for five years on Tuesday and his People Power Party disbanded for electoral fraud in general elections last December.
The protesters lifted their siege after the courts dismissed Wongsawat's Government, whom the People's Alliance accuse of being a puppet of his brother-in-law, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup.
