$2 billion Chinese-built airport opens in Cambodia

[ad_1] Passenger flights started on Tuesday at a $2 billion Chinese language-built airport close to Phnom Penh that Cambodian officers hope will enhance the nation’s sagging tourism business.

The inaugural flight, an Air Cambodia airplane arriving from China, was welcomed with streams of water from hearth vans.

Sitting about 20 kilometers, or 12 miles, outdoors the Cambodian capital, the three-runway, 10-square-mile Techo Worldwide Airport was collectively funded by the Cambodian authorities and the privately owned Abroad Cambodian Funding Company, officers say. It was designed by Britain’s Foster + Companions and constructed by China’s state-owned China Building Third Engineering Bureau Group Co.

It replaces the almost 70-year-old Phnom Penh Worldwide Airport, which has only one runway. The brand new airport will have the ability to deal with as much as 13 million passengers a yr, officers say; the outdated airport noticed almost 5 million passengers in 2024.

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Clearing land for the airport required round 2,000 households to be evicted or face eviction, the Sahmakum Teang Tnaut NGO reported this week, in keeping with Agence France-Presse. A civil aviation official instructed AFP that they may not affirm the variety of native residents affected, however stated such disputes have been “nearly resolved.”

The opening comes two years after the debut of a $1.1 billion airport for Siem Reap, close to the famed Angkor temples, the nation’s hottest vacationer attraction. A Chinese language-owned firm was given the rights to that airport for 55 years.