CityNews – Group Captain Wisoot Chantana, Director of the Chiang Mai International Airport, announced that during this year’s Loy Krathong, 24th-26th November, there will be a total of 84 flights which will be cancelled – 72 domestic and 12 international – nearly all of which are flights scheduled after 6pm on the days in question.
A further 51 flights have been rescheduled – 29 domestic and 22 international – however he does not believe that this will have any affect for Chiang Mai as plans had been put in place for a long while and many public announcements made.
The airport authorities have liaised with numerous organisations as well as disseminated news on the ban on releasing lanterns on any night except for the 25th November and 31st December. And lanterns are only allowed to be released after 9pm on those two nights.
Also between the 21st and 30th November there will increase its frequency in checking the runway from four to ten times per day. This is to find old lanterns which may have fallen onto the airfield. Last year a total of 142 lanterns were found on the runways…nothing compared to 2013’s 1,414 lanterns collected.