A new computer system at Pochentong Airport to register passengers and the weight of their baggage should increase safety and efficiency at the nation’s largest air terminal.
The Departure Control System, in use since Nov 26, begins when a passenger checks into the airport. It weighs their bags, registers their boarding pass and makes it easier for workers to balance the plane’s load of baggage, Societe Concessionaire de l’Aeroport Information Manager Kho Sok Thirith said.
The system cost $200,000. The company sent 20 workers to Singapore for three weeks in September to learn about the DCS.
“This is the first time in Cambodia that we have the departure control system. It is for guests’ safety and the process of organizing at the airport is quicker,” Kho Sok Thirith said.
Previously, registration of baggage was done manually. “The inspection of the plane’s balance was done by hand, so it was not as [accurate] as the computer,” he said.
Two of the 13 airlines that operate at Pochentong, Royal Phnom Penh Airways and Lao Aviation, are using the system, Kho Sok Thirith said. The airline committee at Pochentong Airport, which represents all 13 airlines, has not yet agreed to use the DCS system because of the cost. An official from Thai Air said it costs about $0.93 per passenger; an official from the SCA said it was even less.
The extra charge is worth the service, Kho Sok Thirith said. “We do not gain from this service,” he said. “But what we are doing is just to make it safer for guests, to make this a place for good service for them, and oblige companies to make the airport meet the international standards.”
Workers did the registration of baggage by hand before the DCS computer system was installed. “The inspection of the plane’s balance was done by hand, so it was not as [accurate] as the computer,” he said.
Two of the 13 airlines that operate at Pochentong, Royal Phnom Penh Airways and Lao Aviation, are using the system, Kho Sok Thirith said. The airline committee at Pochentong Airport, which represents all 13 airlines, has not yet agreed to use the DCS system because of the cost.
An official from Thai Air said it costs about $0.93 per passenger; an official from the SCA said it was even less.
The extra charge is worth the service, Kho Sok Thirith said. “We do not gain from this service,” he said. “But what we are doing is just to make it safer for guests, to make this a place for good service for them, and oblige companies to make the airport meet the international standards.” By Phann Ana
the cambodia daily
City authorities have begun a crackdown on cars with tinted and curtained windows, reviving a 4-year-old order by Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Military and municipal police officers took to the streets last week, telling drivers with tinted windows to get rid of them by today, Phnom Penh Police Chief Suon Chheangly said. “It is not difficult. The principle already exists,” the chief said. “If we allow tinted cars more and more, the principle is meaningless.”
Hun Sen, then second-prime minister, outlawed tinted or curtained car windows as part of a security initiative shortly after factional fighting broke out in Phnom Penh in 1997.
Suon Chheangly said officers spotted more than 100 tinted-window cars on city streets last Wednesday. The officers did not levy fines, but warned drivers to remove the tinting by the deadline today.
After today, officers will remove the dark tint or curtains themselves rather than fining violators, the chief said.
Suon Chheangly and municipal military police Commander Vong Pisen agreed the number of cars with tinted or curtained windows has been increasing recently, particularly this year.
A taxi driver at the Cambodiana Hotel applauded the ban, but said he did not believe it could be enforced because many cars in violation belong to senior government officials or wealthy businessmen.
“Most of the senior officials’ and [business tycoons’] cars, such as Mercedes and Landcruisers and, especially, high-ranking officials’ sons, like to put the curtains or dark tint on their car windows,” the taxi driver said.
Soun Chheangly disagreed, saying many common people tint or curtain their windows to make their cars more beautiful.
He predicted that cars with illegally obscured windows would be off the streets within two weeks. He also appealed to citizens to conform to the law without waiting to be stopped.
by police.
