2005 September « The Wandering Cambodian

Archive for September, 2005

Let’s Fly to Kuala Lumpur for $15

In My Life on Wednesday, September 28, 2005 at 8:30 AM

Continuing from my previous post, here is an update on Air Asia’s flight to Cambodia.. The schedule and price have been confirmed now. We may now start flying to Kuala Lumpur from Phnom Penh for just US$15. How amazing! Below, please find this little piece of news I extracted from Forbes News.

AirAsia Increases Its Regional Reach

Malaysia’s low-cost carrier AirAsia said Tuesday it will start flying from Kuala Lumpur to Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, and the Thai hill resort of Chiang Mai as part of its regional expansion.

The flight to Phnom Penh marks AirAsia’s debut into Cambodia, as it seeks to strengthen its regional dominance amid rising competition from a slew of no-frills carriers in Southeast Asia.

“Daily services to Chiang Mai would commence on Oct. 20, while daily flights to Phnom Penh would begin on Nov. 1,” it said in a statement. AirAsia is Southeast Asia’s only publicly-listed low-cost carrier and its biggest in fleet size terms.

It said it will sell 10,000 seats on each of the two destinations for as low as 49.99 ringgit (US$15, euro 11) one-way to celebrate the new routes.

The carrier, which currently serves routes in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Macau, has said it plans to also begin flying to Laos by next year.

Technorati Tag: Cambodia,Khmer, Airlines

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Budget Airlines to Enter Cambodia

In My Life on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 at 7:54 AM

I came across a news article today. In a month’s time, the Malaysia- and Thailand-based budget airline Air Asia will start its Cambodian sky mission. This will mark the beginning of budget air traveling in our country. Cambodians will for the first time be able to enjoy overseas travelling at a cheaper fare (just Baht 999 for a one-way trip from Phnom Penh to Bangkok). For now, Air Asia will fly to Phnom Penh only. But in the near future to come, it wishes to expand its network to Siem Reap as well. As informed further by the article, two other major Singaporean budget airlines, Tiger Airways and JetStarAsia Air, are also working out a possibilty of tapping the Cambodian air travel potential.

With such good news, there come some bad news to worry..

If I was not wrong, the government and a group of Oknhas from the Phnom Penh Chamber of Commerce are planning to reestablish a national airline whose name is to be decided. It might be either Air Cambodia or Royal Angkor Cambodia Airline.. And with new budget airlines coming in, I believe the road ahead for our new airline will be real tough.. Competition will be a lot harsher. As a matter of fact, there have so far been over ten airlines which have gone bankrupt after a few months of operation, namely Mekong Airlines, First Cambodia Airlines, Royal Khmer Airlines, President Airlines and others..

So, what do u think? Should we welcome budget airlines? Should we let more foreign companies exploit our tourism industry and kill our local airlines? Statistically, millions of dollars from the tourist money leaves our country each year due to mismanagement, lack of strong local investment and support for local products, and unfair monopoply, just like in the case of Bangkok Airways’ royalty flights to Siem Reap.. Let’s weigh it.. :p Should we or shouldn’t we?

For more info, pls read: http://www.bangkokpost.com/Business/20Sep2005_biz15.php

Technorati Tag: Cambodia,Khmer, Airlines

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