The Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI) was put into official use this morning in a ceremony presided over by Prime Minister Samdech Moha Borvor Thipadei Hun Manet and visiting H.E. Wang Yubo, Governor of China’s Yunnan province.
Addressing the function, H.E. Wang Yubo said this is the first international airport that was constructed and operates outside China by Chinese company under the Build-Operation-Transfer (BOT) form.
This will contribute to building closer relationship and cooperation between Cambodia and China, especially between Cambodia and Yunnan province, he underlined.
The newly-inaugurated airport resulted from the fruitful cooperation from the value-added culture between China and Cambodia, the governor added.
Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet expressed his high appreciation of China’s support to Cambodia’s development, underlining that this is an achievement from the Belt and Road Initiative.
“This is one of the fruitful outcomes of Cambodia-China ironclad friendship,” the Cambodian Premier said.
SAI official inauguration took place after the airport commenced its commercial operations on Oct. 16, 2023.
As a 4E-level international airport that can accommodate long-haul flights from across the globe with a 3,600-metre runway and 38 berths, SAI is able to manage seven million passengers annually and is expected to increase its capacity to a staggering 12 million passengers a year from 2040.
The construction of Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport began in March 2020 with an investment of approximately US$1.1 billion by the Angkor International Airport Investment (Cambodia) Co., Ltd.
According to the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation’s report, Cambodia registered 3.4 million air travellers during the first eight months of 2023, a year-on-year increase of 180 percent.
Tourism is one of the four pillars supporting Cambodia’s economy. The country attracted up to 6.61 million international tourists in 2019, generating a gross revenue of US$4.92 billion, pointed out the Ministry of Tourism.
