The popular airline believes that its operations will bring around 3-4 million tourists to Cambodia every year.
This would be AirAsia’s fifth foray into the ASEAN market and it already has operations in countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand in the region. Outside Southeast Asia, it has offices in Japan and India.
The announcement was made by Tony Fernandes, CEO of Capital A (changed from AirAsia Group) during a meeting with Chea Bora, Cambodian Secretary of State of the Ministry of Tourism. He stated that his company had started the process of establishing a headquarter in Cambodia under the name of AirAsia Cambodia.
In January 2023, AirAsia will sign a memorandum of understanding with local companies in Phnom Penh to kickstart operations for AirAsia Cambodia. The airline’s primary objective would be to develop Cambodia’s flight connectivity to other ASEAN countries and also start direct flights from countries like China and India which could substantially increase the volume of tourists visiting the country.
There are no direct flights between India and Cambodia at the moment, so this service would play a vital role in enabling tourist travel by air.
Currently, AirAsia has over 200 Airbus A321 aircraft in its fleet, so the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism is hopeful that with its affordable prices, the airline’s presence could lead to more international tourists visiting the Kingdom.
