Cambodian airline to launch direct flight to Shanghai

Cambodia's national flag carrier Cambodia Angkor Air (CAA) will start its regular flight linking Cambodia to China's Shanghai from Dec. 26, according to the airline's press statement on Wednesday.

CAA will operate six flights per week from Phnom Penh and Siem Reap to Shanghai using an Airbus A321 jet aircraft, the statement said.

"This new flight to Shanghai is based on the forecast about a great boom of Chinese tourists and business people coming to Cambodia in the next few years," it said.

With the new route, the airline will have expanded its international routes to 5, linking Phnom Penh and Siem Reap to Bangkok of Thailand, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh cities of Vietnam, Guangzhou and Shanghai of China.

In September the CAA launched its regular flight from Cambodia' s Siem Reap cultural city to China's Guangzhou.

Ang Kim Eang, president of the Cambodia Association of Travel Agents, said the new flight would help further promote economics, trade and tourism between Cambodia and China.

"With direct flight between Cambodia and Shanghai, I believe that more Chinese business people and tourists will come to Cambodia," he told Xinhua on Wednesday.

Cambodia attracted 3.4 million foreign tourists in the first 10 months of this year. Of the figures, 376,570 were Chinese tourists, said the data of the Ministry of Tourism. China is the second largest source of visitors to Cambodia after Vietnam.

CAA officially launched its operations in July 2009. It is a joint venture between the Cambodian government -- which owns 51 percent of the business -- and Vietnam Airlines, which holds the remaining stake.

At present, the airline comprises a fleet of six aircraft -- three Airbus A321s and three ATR 72s, the statement said, adding that the company will increase the number of the planes to 12 in 2015 in order to meet passengers' demands.