Cambodia opens a new $2 billion airport to serve Phnom Penh

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet on Monday inaugurated a major new airport to serve the capital Phnom Penh and increase tourism and international investment.

Techo International Airport is a three-runway facility that replaces the practically 70-year-old Phnom Penh International Airport, which had only one runway.

The new $2 billion airport, in Kandal province about 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Phnom Penh. started working in September. It is a three way partnership between the Cambodian authorities and the Overseas Cambodian Investment Corp.

Hun Manet said he hoped the new airport shall be a driving forces in attracting more vacationers and buyers to Cambodia,”more than before the arrival of COVID-19.”

The new airport is initially anticipated to have the option to accommodate 13 million passengers, but its capability will increase to 30 million after 2030, and up to 50 million by 2050.

The quick prospects for a rise in international vacationers have been overshadowed by the extremely publicized death of a younger South Korean man who reportedly was tricked into working in one of Cambodia’s online rip-off facilities.

Many of the employees there are stored as digital slaves to conduct online fraud in what is a multi-billion greenback organized crime exercise. The unlawful industry was highlighted last week when the United States and Britain enacted sanctions against organizers of a major Cambodian gang, and its alleged ringleader was indicted by a federal court in New York.

Tourism suffered another blow in July, when Cambodia fought a five-day battle with neighboring Thailand. It was halted by a ceasefire but tensions stay high.

Cambodia acquired about 4 million international vacationers from January through August this 12 months, Hun Manet said in September. Last 12 months, it acquired 6.7 million, a 23% increase from 2023.

It is Cambodia’s second new major airport in two years. In October 2023, Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport was opened to help serve Cambodia’s most standard vacationer attraction, the centuries-old Angkor Wat temple complicated.