Anti-government militants at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport were exultant today following news of the Thai government's ousting.

The coiled razor-wire was still in place on the approach roads and the roadblocks were still manned by conscientious guards from the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) - but the good cheer was obvious.

Vudhibhandhu Vichairatana, chairman of the board of directors of the Airports of Thailand, visited Suvarnabhumi today and said he was sure the PAD would vacate the two Bangkok airports, Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang, either today or tomorrow. "They told me they are leaving today," he explained to The Times, an assertion that was immediately denied by a PAD supporter.

"We will try and get the conditions to a normal stage as soon as possible," Mr Vudhibhandu said. Flights would be operational from Suvarnabhumi in "a few days, hopefully a few days", he added.

But his optimism was quickly hosed down by a senior PAD member. Dr Chokchuang Chutinaton, working in the airport's first class lounge, said the PAD rank and file, numbering in the thousands at Suvarnabhumi, would probably stay put - at least until it had been determined a caretaker government would not simply be a rerun of the same old faces.

"We are extremely happy that the puppet of Mr Thaksin Shinawatra, the exiled former Prime Minister, has fallen," he said. "Mr Thaksin pulls the strings from Dubai and Hong Kong and Somchai jumps. He rules by proxy, that's the problem.

"But if the caretaker government is made of former government members, we absolutely will reject it," Dr Chokchuang added. "We have demonstrated for three years and continuously for the last six months, how can we give in for a new puppet government. That's ridiculous."

Certainly, there appeared to be no efforts by PAD activists to pack up and leave the gleaming glass and concrete Suvarnabhumi terminal late this afternoon. Militants sat listening to speeches, shaking their plastic hand-clappers, and enjoying the moment. The largely middle-class movement of Royalists enjoys powerful backing and is well-funded, with vast supplies of bottled water stacked in piles, packages of cooked food, clothes and bedding.

The airport occupation, which began when PAD militants stormed the terminal last Tuesday, has stranded as many as 240,000 foreign tourists, including, the British Embassy estimates, "several thousand" Britons.

Today, flights were still departing from U-Tapao naval airbase, 90 miles south of Bangkok, a Vietnam War era facility with a tiny terminal. Tourists have reported spending several hours in the searing heat trying to get on a flight at U-Tapao, and are flatly refusing to use the inadequate lavatory arrangements.

PAD militants say that they had to make a stand. They had occupied the prime minister's Government House compound since August, erecting dozens of tents and a massive stage for the leaders' speeches – but to no avail, as the government remained unmoved. Yesterday, they retreated from the grounds of the Italianate palace, and the occupying activists joined their comrades at Suvarnabhumi or Don Muang – where, last night, another grenade attack killed one PAD supporter and critically wounded another five.

Boonchai Jindathawornkij, a computer engineering student, said he was supporting PAD at Suvarnabhumi because Thailand needed to change.

"The government has been replaced a number of times, but the problems from 2005 are here until now," he said. "A lot of the problems from Thaksin's time are still here. This is one win, but the government is still alive, the system is still alive."

He expected violence on Bangkok's streets either tonight or tomorrow when government supporters reacted to the news of the Somchai government's fall.

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