Phnom Penh (FN), Apr. 11 – Air Asia Indonesia will commence direct flight from Jakarta to Phnom Penh and Phnom Penh to Jakarta on 19 April 2023, with four flights a week using Airbus A320 with a capacity of 180 passengers.
The inauguration ceremony took place on 10 April 2023 at the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Cambodia, presided over by Thong Rathasak, secretary of state of Cambodian Ministry of Tourism.
“I would like to congratulate and celebrate AirAsia Indonesia for the establishment of direct flights between Jakarta-Phnom Penh-Jakarta as part of the fruitful implementation of the MoU on Tourism Cooperation between our two countries. I also would like to re-invite other Indonesian Air Carriers such as Citilink and Garuda Airlines to reconnect our key tourism destinations,” said Thong Rathasak.
In addition, Chea Aun, permanent secretary of state of State Secretariat of Civil Aviation, also expressed his firm belief that the launch of regular direct flights between Jarkata, Indonesia and Phnom Penh, Cambodia will play an important role in responding to the implementation of the Open Sky Policy of the Royal Government of Cambodia as well. Moreover, this scheduled direct flight will also promote closer ties on trade, culture and people-to-people exchanges between our two countries.
On that occasion, Air Asia Indonesia CEO Ms. Veranita Yosephine shared her own experience about the flight and she was very pleased to announce that the launch of direct flights between Jakarta and Phnom Penh will shorten the distance, in particular travel time of passengers from 6 hours to 3 hours, as well as lower costs.
This long-awaited direct flight is important for both Indonesia and Cambodia, especially to improve connectivity and strengthen business-to-business as well as people-to-people contact. This direct flight is also part of the implementation of the Mol on Tourism Cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Indonesia and the Royal Government of Cambodia signed in 2022.
For the first 2 months of 2023, Cambodia has received more than 837 thousand international tourists and Indonesians were close to 20 thousand. It is forecasted to receive about 4.5 million international tourists in 2023 with more than 150 thousand Indonesians and 17 million internal tourists.
=FRESH NEWS
