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Thailand's prime minister was ousted Tuesday after weeks of protests closed the capital's airports, stranding 300,000 travelers. Protesters promised to lift their siege, and international flights were expected to resume Friday.

The government of Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat was doomed when the nation's Constitutional Court dissolved Thailand's top three ruling parties for electoral fraud in the 2007 vote that brought them to power. Somchai was banned from politics for five years.

Somchai did not formally resign, as the protesters had demanded for months, but accepted the ruling.

"It is not a problem. I was not working for myself. Now I will be a full-time citizen," he told reporters in Chiang Mai, the northern city where his paralyzed administration has been forced to govern since Wednesday.

Protest leaders said the airport seizures would end Wednesday.

With the waning of the political crisis, the official in charge of Thailand's airports said Suvarnabhumi international airport will resume operations on Friday.

"Please have confidence in us," said Vudhibhandhu Vichairatana, the chairman of the Airports of Thailand.

He called the flights a birthday gift for Thailand's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who turns 81 on Dec. 5. The airport reopened to cargo flights Tuesday.

Officials had earlier said the airport would not reopen for commercial flights before Dec. 15, but Vudhibhandhu said he brought forward the date because an inspection revealed the airport had suffered no damage and could become operational more quickly.

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