Cambodia Angkor Air plans flights to Viet Nam

Business Desk
Viet Nam News
29-07-2009

A new Cambodian national airline, Cambodia Angkor Air (CAA), has been launched as a joint venture between Viet Nam and Cambodia, at Pochentong International Airport in Phnom Penh.

Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen Monday cut the ribbon launching CAA, a joint venture between the Cambodian National Aviation Agency and the Vietnam Airlines Corporation.

CAA has two ATR-72-500 aircraft that service domestic flights from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville and Siem Reap.

It has plans to expand its operations to other regional countries, including Viet Nam and Thailand, with A-320 and A-321 aircraft.

Cambodia’s national airline, Royal Cambodge Airlines (RCA), was established in 1994, but had to close operations in 2001 due to huge losses and the use of planes that did not meet the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s standards.

Futher co-operation

During his three-day working visit to Cambodia, which began on Saturday, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong was received by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Chairman of the Cambodian National Assembly Heng Samrin on Sunday.

The Cambodian leaders welcomed the visit by Trong and said the countries’ solidarity and friendship was further reinforced and developed.

Trong and his entourage also paid a courtesy visit to Buddhist Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong at the Oum Naloum Pagoda, and presented hospital beds, medical equipment and computers to the Cambodian Buddhist Centre’s infirmary.

Trong and Hun Sen also witnessed the awarding of a Cambodian Government’s licence to the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV) to open a representative office, and establish an insurance company and an investment development company in Phnom Penh.

To mark the occasion, BIDV presented the Cambodia Red Cross with US$800,000 in aid for Cambodia’s poor, and 700 computers for Cambodian children in need.