Cambodia’s brand new Siem Reap–Angkor International Airport opens

Siem Reap–Angkor International Airport is Cambodia’s biggest and newest airport after its first phase opened on October the 16^th.

The airport is located in the country’s northwest Siem Reap province and sits 40 kilometers east of the 162.6-hectare Angkor Wat temple complex, the world’s largest religious monument.

It came to replace the outdated Siem Reap International Airport, which was built in 1932.

More specifically, the previous airport faced capacity and pollution issues threatening the monument, in addition to being located too close to the temple, at approximately just 5 kilometers, which posed threats of tremors and acid rain to it.

At its current first phase, the new airport can support approximately 2 million more passengers than the old one, having a total capacity of about 7 million passengers.

This number is expected to increase further during the next two phases, reaching 12 million passengers by 2040 and 20 million passengers by 2050.

Furthermore, Siem Reap–Angkor cost about €1 billion to construct, while it was Chinese-funded, and is the first overseas international airport to be delivered under the Build-Operate-Transfer model, which in this case will have a 55-year duration.

The new airport’s construction started in 2020, and it occupies about 700 hectares of land, while featuring a 3,600 m. long runway. As for its design, it was inspired by traditional Cambodian architecture.

Finally, Cambodia has another new Chinese-funded airport underway, coming to serve its capital. This is going to be the Phnom Penh International Airport, which will occupy an area of 2,600 hectares and will come at a cost of €1.4 billion upon completion in 2024.