Cambodia: Airport traffic down by 75 percent this year
Cambodia Airports says there has been a drop in traffic of people travelling to Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville airports of up to 75 percent in the last eight months.
There has also been a drop in cargo being flown in and out of the country by up to 32 percent. Public Relations Director Khek Norinda said traffic at the three international airports this year has sharply dropped because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have seen some flights start again but the resumption of air travel will be very slow. Even our domestic flights have nearly come to a standstill. For instance, at Siem Reap International airport, there are one to two weekly flights while no international flights have been operating there since March,” Khek said. “The fall of freight is associated with the strong decline of commercial passenger flights: Belly-hold cargo represents a big chunk of our cargo activities.”
There has also been an impact on businesses within the airport such as food and beverage and retail outlets. Not only that, but with a lack of customers, it means there is a lack of work needed to be done by airport staff.
“To sustain the company’s future, measures have been put into place to adapt our workforce, including authorised absence with partial salary, part-time work and voluntary redundancy programmes,” he said
“While facing a sizeable drop in our revenues, we work with our partners to ensure that they remain at the airports for when the passenger traffic recovers.”
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50762434/airport-traffic-down-by-75-percent-this-year/