Air Finland's arrival creates direct Cambodia-Europe air route for the first time

Friday, December 7, 2007
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A direct commercial air route between Cambodia and Europe was opened for the first time Friday with the arrival of an Air Finland flight, officials said.

The Air Finland Boeing 757 landed with 215 passengers at the main airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital, said Khek Norinda, a spokesman for the airport's operator, the French company Societe Concessionnaire des Aeroports.

The plane, with a crew of eight, flew from Stockholm, Khek Norinda said, adding that Air Finland plans to operate three charter flights to Cambodia each month.

The plane's arrival Friday was the first by a European commercial airline, he said, saying he hoped the direct link would help increase the number of European visitors to Cambodia and reduce the country's dependence on neighboring countries' airports and carriers.

"However, we need more time to assess accurately the effects of direct flights from European countries. We're just at the beginning," he said.

Air travel to and from Cambodia is currently dominated by foreign-owned airlines.

Last month, the government signed a joint venture agreement with two Indonesian companies to form a national airline to tap the country's growing tourism industry.

Cambodia received 1.4 million visitors between January and September this year, up nearly 19 percent from the same period in 2006, according to statistics by the Tourism Ministry. It has forecast that total tourist arrivals this year will exceed last year's 1.7 million.

The ministry said South Korean, Japanese and U.S. nationals respectively lead the list of foreign arrivals in Cambodia.

JAL Starts Direct Charter Flights to Cambodia

Tokyo, Japan, Oct 16, 2007 - (JCN Newswire) - JAL will start operating direct charter flights from Japan to Siem Reap in Cambodia. Up until the end of this fiscal year, ending March 31 2008, JAL plans to operate between 10-15 round trip flights, starting with a flight departing Osaka (Kansai) on November 20, 2007. (Subject to government approval).

The airline will operate direct flights to Siem Reap from Osaka (Kansai), Tokyo (Narita) and Nagoya (Chubu) using Boeing 767 aircraft. The aircraft will have a capacity of 200 passengers per flight, and the journey will only take from between 5 to 6 hours. The flights will only be sold as part of a holiday package offered by travel agents in Japan.

The number of Japanese travelers visiting Cambodia, location of the UNESCO World Heritage site Angkor Wat, has been increasing every year. Based on data from the Ministry of Tourism, Kingdom of Cambodia about 120,000 Japanese visited Cambodia in 2006.

Up until now there have been no direct scheduled flights from Japan to Siem Reap. Travelers have had to change flights in Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh, for example.

JAL plans to operate a total of 400 round trip charter flights this fiscal year. Between April and September this year, JAL has already operated around 225 round trip charter flights to such tourist destinations as Budapest and Prague in Central Europe, Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia as well as Toronto and Montreal in Canada.

Responding to changes in Japanese tourism demand, JAL also started operating earlier this year for the first time direct charter flights to Dubrovnik, a Croatian resort in the Adriatic Sea, and Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands, called the 'necklace of the Pacific'.