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Published on September 3, 2007

Residents of 32 communities around Suvarnabhumi Airport said they plan to hold talks with airport executives today about noise from passing aircraft.

Wanchart Manatham-masombat, a leader of the protesting residents, said his group was ready to open negotiations with Airports of Thailand (AOT) executives today and would seek a written guarantee that residents will get compensation for noise pollution.

If AOT refuses to negotiate, residents will gather in protest to block the passenger building on Sunday.

People living near the international airport last Friday threatened to disrupt flights by releasing balloons if planes take off and land between the hours of 9pm and 5am.

Representative Prasert Boonkaew said residents would resort to the measure if airlines do not stop flying to and from the airport at night from Friday.

Prasert said residents knew that releasing balloons was an offence, but they were fed up with the aircraft noise.

"No officials responsible for the problem offer any solution to us,'' Prasert said.

He said residents wanted AOT to follow last year's Cabinet resolution to solve the problems, but the authority had ignored the resolution and unfairly reduced the estimate of residents affected by the noise.

He said 71 residents who had earlier received compensation claimed the authority took advantage of them by making them sign a contract without allowing it to be open to public scrutiny.