Skift Take
Unless they live on another planet, most people now know that airports are the perfect places to hold demonstrations and gain maximum coverage for a cause. It’s a message that airport authorities in Asia must correct, particularly as conflicts will continue to simmer in the region.
Protestors have occupied and shut down two key Asian airports, first Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi in November 2008 and now Hong Kong International. What sort of message does that send — that airports are easy targets for demonstrators?
The Airport Authority of Hong Kong woefully sealed that message last week. Unbelievably, it took out an advertisement in the city's English-language newspaper South China Morning Post on September 6 pleading with protesters to “spare our passengers further disruption.”
That didn’t stop protesters, who were probably emboldened. What prevented them was a huge police presence at the airport and its approaching roads, and police checks for protesters in mass-transit stations and trains. In hindsight, authorities could have taken these actions sooner in the pro-democracy battle, now entering its 16th week.
Both the Hong Kong and Bangkok incidents have shown the heavy price paid when protesters take to
