PHNOM PENH, 30 May 2019: Direct flights between Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Jakarta in Indonesia are scheduled to start mid-June, Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism reported on its Facebook page.
It gives Cambodia the first direct route to Indonesia’s capital Jakarta.
Garuda’s subsidiary airline Citilink Indonesia competes with other low-cost airlines including, Lion Air AirAsia and Malindo on routes across Asia.
It will launch a three-weekly service to Phnom Penh on Monday, Wednesday and Friday with a roundtrip fare of USD481.
The flight time will be three hours and 30 minutes departing Jakarta at 1055 and arriving in Phnom Penh at 1425. The return flight will leave the Cambodian capital at 1530 and arrive in CGK Soekarno-Hatta airport at 1900.
The direct flight, at three and a half hours, is considerably shorter than one-stop services offered by AirAsia (stops in Bangkok) that has a travel time of six hours and 20 minutes (fare USD181). Malindo Air through its Kuala Lumpur hub has a travel time of five hours and 5o minutes while the roundtrip fare is USD158. However, that is on the outbound leg while both airlines on the return take around 10 hours and 20 minutes to get you back to Jakarta.
Tourism officials told the Phnom Penh Post that additional international routes linking Cambodia to key outbound travel markets should enable the country to reach its 6.6 million-visitor target.
Citilink is expanding its network with new services from Surabaya and Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur using Airbus A320 with a seating capacity of 180 passengers established recently.
In 2018, around 2 million Cambodians travelled abroad but only 8,000 visited Indonesia, while over 55,000 Indonesians visited Cambodia.
Citilink’s website provides no details or advance notice of launch fares for the new route but it does appear on third-party booking websites and global distribution systems targeting travel agents.
The airline’s website media section is bone dry without a single press release so no surprises when the CEO’s press release, distributed 25 May at a media presentation at Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism, fails to make it to the airline’s website.
Despite the lack of information on the airline’s website, the airline’s CEO told the media briefing that Citilink newest regional route to Phnom Penh would mark the 60th year anniversary of Indonesian-Cambodian diplomatic relations.”
Garuda served the Jakarta – Phnom Penh route until 1970 when it was suspended during the civil war in Cambodia.
Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism data shows that in the first quarter of this year, Cambodia received 15,411 Indonesian tourists – a 10.8% increase when compared with the same period last year. Last year, Cambodia welcomed 55,753 Indonesian tourists up 11.8% when compared with 2017.
