A special President Airlines flight to Sihanoukville’s renovated Kang Keng Airport marked the end Monday of the airport’s seven-year hiatus, although the airport’s official inauguration once again has been delayed, an airport official said.
Buddhist monks blessed the airport Monday morning to bestow prosperity in the coming new year, general manager Geoff Rider said. The reopened airport boasts a lengthened and resurfaced runway and parking area for up to five aircraft. The terminal building has also been modernized.
President Airlines has not yet scheduled a regular set of flights.
The airport’s official dedication, however, will not take place until at least November, to coincide with the planned opening of the Malaysia-based Ariston Sdn Bhd nine-hole golf course on the beach.
Though Rider would not say how much the company spent on the airport, he said Ariston has invested a “large amount” into redevelopment projects in the municipality, calling the airport “a huge bonus for the Sihanoukville area and a great boost for tourism.”
The airport’s opening has been delayed several times since renovations resumed in 2002. Ariston, who took over the airport’s renovation after factional fighting in 1997 caused the government to abandon the project, will manage and maintain Kang Keng Airport, although the government will retain ownership, Rider said. He did not specify how profits would be divided, saying only that “the operation of the airport will benefit Cambodians.”
Good roads from Phnom Penh have made the seaside area a popular site for local tourists, said Sihanoukville Director of Tourism Teng Huy. Now that domestic flights have resumed, he and other tourism officials said they are hopeful the airport will be a launching point for cruise ship passengers who dock in Sihanoukville and want to fly to Siem Reap.
He said one cruise ship arrived in Sihanoukville in February with 400 passengers, many of whom were annoyed to find no easy route from the port town to Siem Reap. “Our people mostly like to travel with family by mini-bus, but foreigners like the airline,” Teng Huy said.
In February, Tourism Ministry Secretary of State Thong Khon said he hoped that the airport eventually can be upgraded to a regional hub servicing other Southeast Asian destinations.
