Thai Airways International (THAI) president Charamporn Jotikasthira has blamed immigration police's new departure clearance procedures for the delay of many flights at Suvarnabhumi airport on Wednesday.
The Immigration Bureau had tightened the procedures but THAI staff already discussed the issue with immigration police and the problem was solved, he said.
He denied earlier reports that a personal conflict between a senior immigration officer and THAI had stalled its flights at the airport.
"If this had been the case, flights of other airlines wouldn't have been affected," he said.
The Immigration Bureau wanted to better supervise departure clearance and demanded more paperwork for clearance requests, which delayed all flights, he added.
"Now the procedures have been improved. I don't know the reasons behind the Immigration Bureau's move or the details of the changes. I only ordered staff to fix the issue," the THAI president said.
A source at Aeronautical Radio of Thailand Co said from 8am to 1pm on Feb 25, 21 outbound flights at Suvarnabhumi airport were delayed by 10 minutes on average due to the slow processing of paperwork for aircraft departure clearance.
Suvarnabhumi airport director Prapon Pattamakitsakul said the delay affected many airlines on that day as the airlines had to submit more details for their flights, including passenger numbers, to immigration and airport officials before they were cleared for take-offs.