VietJet Air to Fly to Siem Reap

KHMER TIMES
CHEA VANNAK



VietJet Air, Vietnam’s budget airline, will start regular flights from Hanoi to the Kingdom’s Siem Reap province at the end of October.

From October 30 there will be seven round-trip flights a week on VietJet using the Airbus 320, said Vann Chanty, director of air transportation at Cambodia’s State Secretariat of Civil Aviation yesterday.

According to Mr. Chanty, VietJet earlier had plans in 2014 to have regular scheduled flights from Hanoi to Siem Reap, but shelved them due to a low passenger load.

“ Now there is a thriving tourist market between Vietnam and Cambodia, with many Vietnamese tourists wanting to visit Angkor Wat in Sieam Reap,” said Mr. Chanty.

Sieam Reap international airport in the first six months of the year recorded 741,671 international tourist arrivals, up 9.3 percent compared to the same period last year.

Minister of Tourism Thong Khon welcomed VietJet’s daily scheduled flights from Hanoi to Siem Reap saying it would facilitate tourism between Vietnam and Cambodia.

Mr. Khon said while there were regular airlines flying directly to Cambodia from China, Japan and South Korea, it was also important to open up flight routes to low-cost carriers.

“Low-cost carriers or budget airlines attract more passengers because their flights are cheap. This would mean more tourists can come to Cambodia,” he said.

Ho Vandy, secretary-general of Cambodia’s National Tourism Alliance, also welcomed VietJet’s new route and said it was also good for backpacker tourists.

“ Backpackers wanting to visit Cambodia would love this new budget airline route, which is a convenient and cheap way of getting to Cambodia,” he said.

Mr. Vandy said the budget airlines flying directly to Cambodia include Singapore’s Jet Star, Malaysia’s Air Asia, Thailand’s Thai Air Asia, and Thai Smile.

He added that VietJet was also studying the feasibility of including a direct route from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh.