President Airlines Announces Int’l Flights

Local carrier President Airlines announced Tuesday it will begin operating three international flights per week starting Thurs­day, with additional flights beginning later in August.

Starting Thursday, the airline will run three flights weekly between Phnom Penh and Taipei, Taiwan, on Wednesdays, Thurs­days and Sundays, officials said. Starting Aug 27, the airline will run daily flights to Bangkok and four flights per week be­tween Hong Kong and Phnom Penh.

The announcement comes as Cambodia is enjoying increased tourist attention.

Meanwhile, the number of visitors may climb to a point where the demand for airline seats may outstrip the supply, said Tony Tandijono, chairman of the company. “The airlines will not have enough to provide the service.”

The airline will operate with two 168-seat Boeing 737s—one starting Thursday the other picking up the next set of routes later in the month, he said.

Tandijono said Tuesday that President Airlines was also pursuing permission from the government to fly directly out of Siem Reap as part of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s “open skies” policy.

The airline has heard nothing yet from the government, he said.

The Cambodian government has come under some criticism for its handling of the open skies policy.

In June Prince Norodom Chak­rapong said the government was blocking airline growth because it had not awarded his Royal Phnom Penh Airways permission to fly routes between Siem Reap, Bangkok and Preah Vihear province.

But Tandijono said Tuesday he believed that competition is fair in Cambodia, and that now was the right time for airline companies to capitalize, especially as businesses in the tourism sector gear up for several summits in November and the Asean Tour­ism Forum in January next year.

“We even worry that there will not be enough hotel rooms for tourists who will arrive next year,” he said.

Right now, he said, there is not enough airport development to handle all the planes that will eventually be needed to shuttle the increasing number of visitors from foreign destinations.

 

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