Siem Reap–Angkor International Airport, is an international airport located in Soutr Nikom District, Siem Reap province which serves the city of Siem Reap, Cambodia. It lies 18 km northeast of Damdek, 40 km east of Angkor Wat and 50 km east of Siem Reap. The construction started in July 2018 and was expected to be completed in 2021/22, but the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and a labour shortage delayed completion of the airport. The airport opened on 16 October 2023. SAI covers an area of 700 hectares (1,730 acres) of land and has a 3,600m runway.
This new airport can receive huge aircraft from the United States and Europe, facilitating direct flights for international tourists visiting the Kingdom of Wonder. It is also said that the airport will help Cambodia to become ‘A Standalone Destination’ as travelers to the Kingdom will no longer need connection flights from Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan.
Recent data released by Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism reveals the country received 3.5 million international tourists in the first eight months of 2023. That’s an increase of 250.8% over the same period last year, but a decrease of 19.7% over 2019, before the country closed its borders because of the pandemic. Cambodia relaxed its Covid entry restrictions and reopened to tourists in March 2022. The country is on track to receive approximately 4.5 to five million international tourists by the end of this year, says the ministry.
Many of those visitors head to Siem Reap to experience the Angkor complex, which is one of the most important archaeological sites in Southeast Asia, according to the UNESCO inscription.