Cambodia Being The Fastest Growing Air Market In Southeast Asia

The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation published recently a study showing that Cambodia is becoming Southeast Asia fastest growing markets with growth in passengers traffic reaching 18% for the second year in a row. Expansion is now engaged to double capacity at both Phnom Penh and Siem Reap airports.

Siem Reap International Airport, the air gateway serving Angkor Wat temples continue to register the highest passengers growth rates in Cambodia. Last year, the airport welcomed over 2.75 million passengers, up by over 20%. The airport is likely to reach or to close to three million passengers this year. Phnom Penh international Airport recorded 2.38 million passengers, up by 15%. Even Sihanoukville, the country third international airport, started to see some movement. The small Southern gateway welcomed last year over 20,000 passengers, a growth of 41% over 2012.

Cambodian airports’ good performance is due to the strong growth in tourism but also in the number of flights and air carriers in the Cambodian market. While national carrier Cambodia Angkor Air has finally embarked into rapid expansion, opening in a year time seven new routesn, mostly to China PRC. CAA network added last year from Phnom Penh the cities of Bangkok, Hanoi and Shanghai while from Siem Reap, the carrier launched flights to Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Wenzhou. In February, CAA launched a sixth route to China, Siem Reap-Fuzhou served with three weekly flights. The delivery of a new Airbus A321 could translate into new services to Korea and China.

The arrival of new Chinese carriers (Spring Airlines, Air China or Tianjin Airlines) had a tremendous effect on traffic. China represents now 15% of all seat capacities to and from Cambodia. This is the third largest market after Vietnam and Thailand which represent both some 22% to 25% of all available seats. Vietnam plays a leading and rather influential role in Cambodia. Vietnam Airlines represents not only over 15% of total seat capacity on international routes, it is also  the main foreign stake holder in Cambodia Angkor Air, the country’s flag carrier. In total, 29 airlines serve now Cambodia.

Cambodian airports are now investing 100 million US$ to the expansion of both airports. Work started in January on the expansion of terminals and aprons. More check-in and immigration counters as well as new baggage handling systems will be installed. When expansion works will be achieved by 2015 for Siem Reap and 2016 for Phnom Penh, the capacity of each airport will be of 5 million passengers on an annual basis.

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More visitors to hail Kingdom

Cambodia Airport

From Threeland Travel's Blog - November 2012

Cambodia Airports estimates the number of passengers entering via Cambodia’s two international airports will increase by an average 8.8 per cent in 2013.

That prediction is 1.2 per cent lower than the 2012 projection of a 10 per cent increase.

The lower forecast is due to the uncertainty of the global situation, especially the US and European countries, as well as the slowdown of the economy in China.

Cambodia Airports chief executive Emmanuel Menanteau expects the number of passengers will increase by seven per cent for Phnom Penh’s airport, to around 2.25 and 2.55 million arrivals for Siem Reap, a rise of 10.5 per cent, he said during a press conference launching Cambodia Airports’ new winter schedule.

“Cambodia is expected to maintain its economic and tourism growth momentum, key drivers to the rise of air traffic. The trend should be carried out all along the year 2013,” Menanteau said.

“However, the uncertainty of the global economy may impact on the overall demand of air transport, with spill-over effects on traffic in Cambodia,” he said.

Ho Vanndy, co-chair of the Tourism Private Sector Working Group, agreed that passenger numbers from the US and Europe are low, but said they are still potential customers for Cambodia’s tourism sector.

“We noticed that some airlines from Europe that used to operate charter flights suspended their operations between 2011 and 2012. We’re not sure whether or not the projections are accurate,” he said.

“However, if their economy is improving, we’ll have more tourists from them due to Condor Air beginning a direct flight from Frankfurt to Siem Reap once a week,” he said.

Menanteau said that a local carrier, Cambodia Angkor Air, will operate new flights between Siem Reap and Bangkok, with seven flights a week, and weekly flights from both Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville via Siem Reap.

Tourist arrivals by air rose 16 per cent over the first eight months of the year to 1.11 million tourists, of which those via Phnom Penh rose nine per cent. Figures for Siem Reap increased 22 per cent, according to the data from the Ministry of Tourism.

It shows visitor numbers from ASEAN countries rose 38.6 per cent and account for 42 per cent of arrivals. Those from Europe increased 11.7 per cent for a 17 per cent share, while figures for the US rose 12.7 per cent, contributing 4.9 per cent of arrivals, and China’s went up 31 per cent.

The Ministry of Tourism expects Cambodia to receive three million tourists this year, about five million by 2015 and seven million by 2020.

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