26 December 2004
By Bloomberg

As many as 10,000 British holiday makers may be in the areas affected by an earthquake and tidal waves that killed more than 6,500 people in Asia today, the Association of British Travel Agents said.

``The staff on the ground are trying to locate and account for everybody who they have on their books, but this is proving difficult as there are many islands with no phone contact,'' said, Keith Betton, head of corporate affairs at ABTA.

The quake, measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale, created tidal waves as high as 10 meters that engulfed coastal areas in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, India and Malaysia. Aftershocks were felt across 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles).

The Foreign Office set up an emergency helpline for information. The number is (44) (20) 7008 0000. Areas affected include Phuket, in Thailand, Tamil Nadu, in India, Trincomalee, in Sri Lanka, Aceh, in Indonesia, and Penang in Malaysia.

More than 15000' tourist in Maldives when tsunami struck

The U.K. government has offered ``practical assistance'' to India, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in an e-mailed statement.

``We are doing everything we can to assist but the disruption to communication in the worst-affected areas is inevitably making it difficult to confirm exactly the situation on the ground,'' Straw said. ``Our staff in London are in close touch with the Association of British Travel Agents and the airlines.''

German Flights

TUI AG, Europe's largest tour operator, is canceling flights to Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Phuket until Dec. 31, said Anja Braun, a spokeswoman. This will affect 200 passengers and the company currently has 700 customers in the three locations. TUI has the capacity to bring passengers back to Germany, she said.

Thomas Cook AG, Europe's second-largest tour operator, is sending three empty flights today to Phuket, to Male, Maldives, and to Colombo, Sri Lanka, to bring back customers to Germany.

Thomas Cook has about 4,000 German customers in those locations, spokesman Rolf-Dieter Grass said. The company won't fly any new passengers to those destinations, he said.

ABDA said tour operators' charter flights will leave the U.K. for the Maldives tonight as scheduled, providing the airlines can get landing permission. These planes will bring back those passengers who were already due to return.

``The tour operators are doing the job of collating the information of who's safe and who isn't accounted for,'' Betton said. ``They'll share that with the Foreign office and the picture will become clearer in a few days. My advice would be to do nothing at the moment, as nothing is going to make anyone safer.''

Europe's largest airlines say their scheduled flights to India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia are unaffected.

Air Services

A British Airways Plc flight that left London yesterday for Chennai, India, wasn't affected, said a spokeswoman for the airline. The Dec. 28 flight to Chennai is expected to go ahead normally, as is a daily journey to Bangkok, she said.

Spokesmen for Air France-KLM Group, Europe's biggest airline, and Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europe's third-largest carrier, also said flights are going ahead normally.