Euro airline eyes Cambodian base

PHNOM PENH Small Planet Airlines, a Lithuanian leisure airline, is seeking approval from Cambodia’s civil aviation department to operate flights out of the country to South Korea and China.

Phnom Penh Post reported the independent leisure airline, which already has an air operator’s certificates (AOC) in Lithuania, Poland and Germany, is looking to expand its operations in Asia to offset the seasonal slowdown in Europe.

State Secretariat of Civil Aviation official, Khim Sophorn, was quoted saying that Small Planet had requested an AOC from the government which  was still under review.

“Small Planet has already received approval in principle from the government…the SSCA is just in the process of going through the paperwork.”

The airline expects to receive approval by January 2017, according to Small Planet’s operations in Cambodia chief commercial officer, Steve Kim.

The target market will be charter flights form South Korea and China to Siem Reap.

Small Planet already has a fleet of 21 aircraft and would station two aircraft in Cambodia to operate the charters.

For the first seven months of this year, Cambodia welcomed 2,756,693 international travellers increasing 3.4% from 2,666,315 during the same period last year.

Ministry of Tourism data showed 55.1% (1,517,561) of all international visitors arrived by airlines. Siem Reap Airport received the major market share, 30.9% (852,937), while Phnom Penh Airport secured a market share of 23.8% (657,118) and Sihanoukville Airport just 0.3% (7,506).