Cambodia’s airlines will continue to fly direct flights from Phnom Penh to Hong Kong during the ongoing severe acute respiratory syndrome scare, but plan to monitor their passengers closely to prevent the spread of the deadly respiratory illness to Cambodia, officials said.
Hong Kong has been badly hit by the SARS scare, and officials there are considering opening rural camps to quarantine people who may have been exposed.
Phnom Penh representatives of Dragon Airlines, President Airlines and Mekong Airlines said Wednesday that they will maintain scheduled flights as long as there are passengers to fly.
Dragon Airlines manager Alfred Sung said he has no plans to cancel flights, but has ordered his airline crews to watch closely for sick passengers; anyone suspected of carrying the SARS virus will be taken off of the plane upon arrival in Phnom Penh and treated according to World Health Organization guidelines, he said.
“We must quickly inform [Cambodia Airport Management Service] or the doctors who have set up a temporary office inside the airport,” he said.
President Airlines will maintain its three weekly flights to Hong Kong as well despite widespread cancellations, said Deny Gungoro, marketing manager for President. She said tourism has been decimated by the SARS scare. “Europeans are really, really, really scared to come to Asian countries,” she said.
The SARS cases have spread quickly, thanks in part to international flights. Stopping the disease before it leaves the airport is the best way to prevent it from coming to Cambodia, said Gungoro.
“Originally it was only one [location.] Now it is spreading all over. The best thing to do is what Singaporean and several other governments have done at the airport: When passengers arrive from Hong Kong, Taipei or anywhere else, always check the passengers. Nobody can tell how long this is going to take,” she added.
Mekong Airlines employee So Vichea said his company is still following its schedule of three flights per week, but since the SARS cases have spread in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Airport Authority has begun to take very serious action against its spread, he said.
All passengers must provide information about their health condition by filling out a questionnaire form at the Hong Kong airport. So Vichea said Cambodia has so far avoided the SARS epidemic because of Hong Kong’s strict monitoring of the disease.
Most of his company’s customers are Hong Kong residents on their way to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat, but even adventurous tourists will stop flying if the SARS epidemic continues to spread, he said.
A vaccine or cure must be found quickly, he said, or even the temples at Angkor Wat will lose their drawing power.
Ticket revenues in Siem Reap have fallen steeply: Some 70 percent fewer travelers are at Angkor Wat this month than usual, according to Sok Kong, president of Sokimex, the private company that manages Angkor Wat in cooperation with the government’s Angkor Authority.
“It has dropped from about 1,000 tourists per day to 300,” he said.
