Cambodia records 22 pct rise in air passengers in first 9 months of 2024

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) — Cambodia has reported more than 4.5 million air travelers during the January-September period of 2024, up about 22 percent from 3.7 million over the same period in 2023, a minister said here on Sunday evening.
Mao Havannall, minister in charge of Cambodia’s State Secretariat of Civil Aviation, said that a total of 31 international and domestic airlines had operated flights, linking Cambodia to eight countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as China, South Korea, India, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, among others.
He disclosed the figures during the launch of direct flights between Cambodia’s Phnom Penh and Vietnam’s Hanoi, operated by Vietnam Airlines.
Cambodia’s State Secretariat of Civil Aviation’s Undersecretary of State and spokesperson Sinn Chanserey Vutha is confident that the Chinese-invested Siem Reap Angkor International Airport (SAI), which was put into official use in November 2023, will help attract more international airlines and passengers to Cambodia.
“We hope the airport will attract new international airlines to operate direct flights to Siem Reap province, the home of the UNESCO-listed Angkor Archaeological Park,” he told Xinhua.
Chanserey Vutha said with a 3,600-meter runway, the SAI is a 4E-level international airport capable enough of handling the landing of almost all kinds of aircraft from across the world. ■