KAL launches flight to Cambodia

By Bae Ji-Sook

Staff reporter

Korean Air celebrated the opening of its two new air routes linking Cambodia Wednesday.
The two routes, between Inchon and Phnom Penh, and between Inchon and Siem Reap, have already been in operation since last November. The airline company held an official ceremony in Phnom Penh to celebrate its entering the ``Baht Economy'' that covers Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam as well as Thailand.

Korean Air Chairman and CEO Cho Yang-ho, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An,
Chang Jae-ku, chairman of The Korea Times and its sister paper Hankook Ilbo, and 200 other guests attended the ceremony.

Cho said that the company is going all-out to become one of the 10 largest airlines in the world. He said that Cambodia is a country with large potential and will be the bridgehead to the East Asian market.

``Traditionally, Korean Air has focused on Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, but it is moving to East Asian countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos,'' he said.

Currently, Southeast Asia takes the second largest portion in the number of passengers for the company after Japan.

Cho with a strong will to develop new market has been focusing on the Southeast Asian market and he himself visited the spot to encourage the business. This is the second time the CEO has attended the service-launching ceremony abroad, following an opening event in Shanghai in 2005.

Korean Air, which was established in 1969 as a state-run enterprise, started its business with eight old propeller driven planes. After 37 years, the company has grown into a large airline company with more than 122 state-of-the-art aircraft that fly to 109 cities in 36 countries.

In 2005 the International Air Transport Association named it as the plane company loading the most cargo in world.

Korean Air operates the Inchon-Phnom Penh route every Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday and the route linking Siem Reap, famous for Angkor Wat, everyday.