ALL AIRLINE FLIGHTS TO BANGKOK CANCELED

Jakarta, Nov. 26 (ANTARA) - All airline flights on the Jakarta-Bangkok route have been canceled following the closing of Thailand's Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok as the airport was stormed by Thai protesters.

Three airlines canceled their flights to Bangkok on Wednesday, head of the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport Administration Office Herry Bakti said in Tangerang, Banten, on Wednesday.

The airlines were Garuda Indonesia, Air Asia dan Thai Airways, he said. Each of them were conducting just one flight to Bangkok daily, he added.

A Garuda Indonesia plane carrying 150 passengers that took off at 11.10 pm on Tuesday had been forced to return back to Jakarta and landed at midnight because Suvarnabhumi International Airport was totally paralyzed.

Herry Bakti predicted that the Thai airport would be reopened on Thursday (Nov. 27).

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that anti-government protesters stormed Bangkok's main international airport and gunfire broke out on the streets of the Thai capital on Tuesday as a campaign to oust Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat turned violent.

Authorities canceled all flights out of Suvarnabhumi Airport, hub for Thailand's lucrative tourist industry, stranding thousands of travelers.

"Our goal is to shut down Suvarnabhumi airport until Somchai quits," said Parnthep Pourpongpan, a spokesman for the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD).

The PAD movement is demanding that Somchai resign, accusing him of being a puppet of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, his brother-in-law.

It has occupied Government House since August and the government has been run out of Bangkok's old Don Muang airport.