UPDATE 2-Cargo flights resume from Bangkok intl airport

(Adds cargo flight leaves, no passenger flights until Dec. 15)

By Vithoon Amorn

BANGKOK, Dec 2 (Reuters) - A cargo plane operated by K-Mile Air left Bangkok's besieged Suvarnabhumi airport on Tuesday, the first to take off from the terminal since anti-government protesters shut it down a week ago, a cargo sector official said.

The Boeing-727 aircraft owned by K-Mile Air, a unit of Kuala Lumpur-based Transmile Group (TMGB.KL), left for Hong Kong with assorted express cargo, Kasem Jariyawong, president of the Thai Airfreight Forwarders Association, said.

Two more cargo flights operated by Air Hongkong Ltd were scheduled to depart for Hong Kong later on Tuesday, he said.

A senior Suvarnabhumi airport official had said earlier cargo flights could resume as soon as shippers and airlines were ready. "I have authorised pure cargo flights to resume from 0900 hours (0200 GMT) this morning and it's up to them to start when they are ready," Serirat Prasutanond, managing director of Airports of Thailand PCL (AOT) AOT.BK, told Reuters.

He said passenger flights would not restart until anti-government protesters had ended their sit-in, which had halted all passenger and cargo flights for the past week. "Passengers' safety comes first," he said.

Later he said in a statement that the airport would remain closed to passenger flights until Dec. 15. [nBKK408499]

The cargo flights were scheduled after a meeting between the Transport Ministry and private businesses on Monday, said Kasem of the forwarders association, adding he did not expect the protesters to block these flights.

Kasem said container trucks could enter the airport through an entrance not blocked by the protesters.

Asian carriers such as Singapore Airlines (SIAL.SI), Cathay Pacific (0293.HK), Qantas (QAN.AX) and Malaysian Airline Systems (MASM.KL), would soon resume cargo flights, he said.

"The cargo planes are ready but shippers need time to repack their cargoes, which have earlier been moved out of the airport after they were delayed by the protest. It takes time to truck them back there," he said.

Serirat said cargo flights would continue as long as there was no disruption from protesters.

NOT ANTI-BUSINESS

A prolonged closure of the $4 billion Suvarnabhumi airport, a major Asian hub that can handle 3 million tonnes of cargo a year, would do huge damage to the export-driven Thai economy, which is already struggling to cope with a global slowdown.

The protesters of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) see the airport disruption as a way of toppling the government, which they say is a front for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was removed by the military in September 2006.