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The international airports in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Sihanoukville welcomed a combined 2.48 million passengers in the first half of this year, a staggering 270 percent increase over the same period in 2022, a senior official at the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation said.
The three airports handled 404 flight movements per week from January to June in 2023, SSCA’s spokesman Sin Chansereyvutha said, adding that the Phnom Penh airport remained the Kingdom’s busiest and handled 602 flight movements.
“The number of flights was 24,725 in the first half of this year, an increase of 147.6 percent compared to the same period last year,” Vutha told Khmer Times yesterday.
Cambodia welcomed around 2.57 million international visitors in the first half of 2023, a sharp increase of 409 percent from 506,762 over the same period last year, the Tourism Ministry reported last week.
Reconnecting flights and opening new air routes contributed to the remarkable growth of air passengers and foreign tourists to Cambodia, said Top Sopheak, Secretary of State and spokesman at the Ministry of Tourism.
“While not as many as before the Covid-19 pandemic, the reconnection of air flights and the increase in routes, particularly direct flights to Cambodia, have made it easier for passengers to travel to Cambodia,” Sopheak told Khmer Times.
According to the ministry estimates, Cambodia will be able to receive up to 5 million international tourists in 2023, an expected increase of 120 percent from 2.27 million in 2022.
The three international airports are under the management of the Cambodia Airports.
Under a public-private partnership signed with the government in 1995, Cambodia Airports holds the concession for the development and management of Cambodia’s network of international airports serving the capital city of Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville.
The shareholders of Cambodia Airports are France’s VINCI Airports (70 percent) and Muhibbah Masteron Cambodia (30 percent), a Malaysian-Cambodian joint venture.
Currently, two international airports are under construction in Kandal and Siem Reap provinces.
Vutha said the Siem Reap Angkor International Airport is 98 percent completed and is scheduled to commence in October this year.
The construction of Techo International Airport is now 50 percent completed and is set to complete construction in 2024 before being put into full operation in 2025, he added.
