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Launched with much fanfare in 2011, Air France is due to stop its direct Paris-Phnom Penh flight from next spring revealed the Singapore-based trade publication TTG Asia.
SINGAPORE/PHNOM PENH- it was a major event for Cambodia. Some 35 years after flying for the last time with a Boeing 707 from Phnom Penh to Paris, French national carrier Air France-KLM was back to the Cambodian capital. The flight was first operated with an Airbus A340-300, equipped with 275 seats and then with a brand new Boeing 777-200 equipped with 309 seats.
This was not a non-stop service as Air France made by then a short stop-over in Bangkok. However, passengers’ traffic never matched Air France expectation. Less than 50 passengers were flying on the thrice-weekly service to Phnom Penh. Air France altered the service in early 2012 by rerouting the flight through Ho Chi Minh City. But it did not change any of the economic paradigms: the Paris-Phnom Penh route remained unprofitable.
According to TTG Asia, a trade publication based in Singapore, Air France is due to terminate its direct thrice-weekly Phnom Penh services from this coming summer season, starting at the end of March 2013. In an interview to the publication, Air France-KLM’s general manager – Mekong, Hervé Moulin tried to minimize the departure of the carrier: “Air France will maintain its presence in Cambodia with an office, continuing to service customers, trade and corporate clients. It will maintain Phnom Penh as a destination through its partnership with Bangkok Airways to code share connecting flights beyond Bangkok”, he declared to the TTG reporter.
Air France’s departure might have been precipitated by Qatar Airways’ announcement to start flying directly to Phnom Penh from next February. The daily frequency will be routed via Ho Chi Minh City.
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
