It was “a great honour to be one of first passengers in the airport”, said British passenger David Weare, who flew in on Singapore Airlines.
“What I can see, it looks amazing, it’s fantastic … I can’t wait to get through and see what the rest of it is all like,” he told AFP.
Sinn Chanserey Vutha, spokesman for Cambodia’s civil aviation regulator, told reporters that the first of three phases of development cost some US$2 billion.
Located 20km south of the capital, Techo airport will be able to handle up to 13 million passengers a year, and aims to reach 50 million by 2050.
The old Phnom Penh International Airport, operating since 1959, was closed for good on the eve of the new airport’s debut.
Sinn Chanserey Vutha said it was closed due to “problems” such as a lack of capacity for large planes to land.
Techo is the second major airport in Cambodia to open in the space of two years, following the inauguration of a US$1.1 billion Chinese-funded terminal near the Angkor Wat temple complex in November 2023.
But the Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT) NGO estimates around 2,000 households have already been or faced eviction as a result of Techo airport’s construction.
“For some, the airport signifies a final devastating chapter in a long struggle for land, livelihood and community,” it said in a report seen by AFP Tuesday.
The civil aviation official could not confirm the number of local residents affected, but said such disputes were “almost resolved”.
Tourism is hugely important to Cambodia’s economy, but visitor numbers nosedived in the years following the Covid-19 pandemic and have struggled to pick up.
Last year Cambodia received 6.7 million international visitors, generating approximately US$3.6 billion.
Source: CNA
