"Yala"

The popular trail running event, “Amazean Jungle Trail”, in Betong district of Yala province has been officially added to the UTMB World Series as one of 25 trail-running events in 16 countries across the world, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports announced on Tuesday.

Commercial flights to Yala’s new Betong airport began taking off on Friday as Nok Air joined efforts to promote tourism in the South.

The 25-year-old owner of a roller skating and roller blading rink has traversed from Chiang Rai to Yala province on his Rollerblades, covering 2,051 kilometres in 55 days.

A policeman was killed and three officers injured in a bomb ambush in Yala’s Bannang Sata district on Wednesday morning.

The Betong Tourism Business Association is seeking help from the Tourism Authority of Thailand to subsidise air fare so that Nok Air could resume its flights to and from Betong International Airport in Yala province.

The Department of Airports issued an announcement on Wednesday stating that its recent order to transfer the acting director of Betong International Airport to an inactive post at the Airports Standard Control Division had nothing to do with Nok Air’s cancellation of flights to the southern airport.

Betong tourism operators are unhappy with Nok Air’s cancellation of flights to the new Betong International Airport, adding that the government must learn from this “expensive lesson”.

Nok Air executives met the Senate’s Transport Committee on Thursday to explain why the airline cancelled flights to Yala’s new Betong International Airport just one day after inauguration.

The government will transform Betong into a model city for tourism and cross-border trading in the South, Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha said after he opened Betong International Airport in Yala province on Monday.

Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha will fly on the first commercial flight from Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport to Betong Airport in Yala province today (Monday) to inaugurate the airport’s commercial operations, Government House announced on Sunday.

Security in the southern province of Yala was tightened on Sunday after alleged insurgents began hanging banners and defacing roads in some areas demanding the independence of “Patani state”.

Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered investigators to catch perpetrators of a bomb attack in Yala on Thursday, as violence in the insurgency-hit South spikes.