Although Cambodia’s national air carrier is without planes and without any apparent means to get any, none of their employees have been laid off, officials at the company said Monday.
Royal Air Cambodge officials said no employees would be out of a job when the airline suspends operations today, a source within the company said.
The Malaysian conglomerate partner with RAC, Malaysian Helicopter Service, has pulled out of its deal with RAC and is expected to confiscate RAC planes.
RAC officials told their employees they were still looking for a new partner, perhaps a company from China, to reopen operations, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The airline’s acting chairman, Minister of Cabinet Sok An, who took over the airline after an incident in 2000 in which a plane scheduled to take King Norodom Sihanouk to Beijing began spewing fuel onto the tarmac at Pochentong Airport, told reporters Monday the company was in limbo, but government intervention would probably be needed.
“The government can still operate a national carrier,” Sok An insisted. He refused any further comment on the matter.
Critics within and outside the company said it continued to be mismanaged, with disorganized schedules and policies, even after Sok An took over the airline.
