PHNOM PENH - Spring Airlines, China’s first and largest budget carrier, will begin operating direct flights between Phnom Penh and Shanghai this month, and later Shenzen.
The Chinese airline will fly the Shanghai-Phnom Penh route three times weekly starting March 28.
Sin Chansereyvutha, spokesman for Cambodia’s State Secretariat of Civil Aviation, said the service would meet the rising demand of Chinese tourists keen to visit the kingdom.
“At the end of [last] year, Spring Airlines and others submitted flight schedules to the aviation body for approval and to set the date for flights to commence. They have rights to operate flights and if they don’t have any flights, that’s okay too,” he said.
The airline also plans direct flights between Phnom Penh and Shenzen, China’s technology hub, but that route will not start until next month, according to Khmer Times.
“Because of the limited scheduled flight times of major airports, most of our international flights are mid- and short-hauls between second- and third-tier Chinese cities and first- and second-tier foreign cities,” Chinese media quoted Zhang Wu’an, vice president of Spring Airlines, as saying.
“With our low-cost operating model and price advantages, we would like to further discover potential markets in second-and third-tier cities,” Mr. Zhang added.
In 2015, Spring Airlines began operating four flights a week between Siem Reap and Chengdu.
Industry players said the increasing number of direct flights to Cambodia reflects the government’s open sky policies which will attract both investors and tourists to Cambodia.
Pacific Asia Travel Association’s local branch chairman Thoun Sinan said that having more airlines serving Cambodia will bring down ticket prices which, in turn, will encourage more people to visit Cambodia.
Last month, Emirates Airlines announced that it will begin operating direct flights between Dubai and Phnom Penh by July, making it the only airline to serve this route.
Passenger traffic at the kingdom’s three international airports soared by 8.5% last year compared with 2015, official data from Cambodia Airports, the company authorized to manage the airports, showed last month.
According to the data, Phnom Penh international airport maintained its double-digit growth at 10%, receiving some 3.39 million passengers last year.