PAL mulls Cambodia flights

PHNOM PENH  The Philippines has asked Cambodia to allow Philippine Airlines to fly a direct flight from Manila to Phnom Penh.

Phnom Penh Post quoted Cambodia’s State Secretariat of Civil Aviation general director, Keo Sivorn, saying the Philippine ambassador had requested  a permit for the Philippine flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) to open the first air connection to the Cambodian capital.

“The request is from the Philippine Embassy, not PAL,” he explained. “The Philippines would like the airline to fly from Manila to Phnom Penh.”

There is no direct service between the two capitals. Tourism wise Cambodia is catching up on the Philippines fast and likely to exceed it in arrivals this year.

PAL’s main objective would be to serve tourists, flying Filipinos to Cambodia on holiday packages and tapping European tourists who visit Cambodia and may wish to extend their trips to the Philippines. That would make Siem Reap a more valuable point for a service, although it would pitch it in direct competition with Cebu Pacific.

Cambodia Airports’ routes development manager, Pichr Sopontara, confirmed this view saying PAL had no intention of connecting the two capitals and was instead aiming to fly from Manila to Siem Reap, the tourist gateway to Cambodia’s Angkor-era temples.

He said the airline plans to operate five flights weekly on the route starting this May using Airbus 321s before increasing to daily service, later in the year.

Low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific flies four flights a week on this route. It started the service in 2012 using an A320s.

The manager added that Cambodia Airports intends to encourage PAL to pioneer a new route from Manila to Phnom Penh instead of competing for Siem Reap-bound passengers.

Philippine Airlines serves 31 destinations in the Philippines and 41 overseas destinations in Southeast Asia, East Asia, Middle East, Oceania, North America and Europe.

For January to November last year,  74,948 Filipino travellers visited Cambodia, down 10.2% from 83,470 visits, during the same period last year, according to Ministry of Tourism data.

In 2014, 93,475 Filipino visits to the kingdom fell  21.4% from 118,999 visits in 2013.