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 northeast of Damdek, east of Angkor Wat and east of Siem Reap. It replaced the existing Siem Reap International Airport as the city’s main airport, and serves as the main airport for the province as well as for Western Cambodia. Upon its opening, it also became the largest airport in Cambodia. 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, surpassing Phnom Penh International Airport as Cambodia's largest airport.
History
Due to growing demands and traffic, the existing Siem Reap International Airport will not be able to cope in the future, as it is already running in its constraining capacity of over 10 million passengers per annum. So, to handle the future traffic, the Government of Cambodia decided to build a new, replacement airport for Siem Reap. The project was first introduced in 2010, and a Chinese company, Yunnan Investment Holdings Limited, was selected to build the airport in December 2016. The airport was constructed under a 55 year build-operate-transfer agreement.
Another reason for the project is to address air pollution concerns. It was found that emissions from the existing airport, which was much closer to the Angkor Wat Temple Complex than the new airport, and the city's excessive air pollution overall are causing damage to the Angkor Wat Temple Complex. If unchecked, this may result in the erasing of carvings and other damage to the entire complex. In view of these issues, once the airport was opened, all commercial flights were shifted here from the older airport, which was closed.
Features
The airport is being built in three phases, at a cost of US$1.1 billion and on an area of 700 hectares, The airport has a passenger terminal with 15 aerobridges, a cargo terminal, an Air Traffic Control Tower, a 3,605 metre runway with a parallel taxiway. The terminal can handle 7 million passengers per year in the first phase.
The airport's runway is initially capable of handling narrow-body aircraft like the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320, while in the second phase, the runway will be expanded to handle wide-body aircraft like the Boeing 747, Boeing 777, Boeing 787, Airbus A330, and Airbus A350, and will increase the airport's capacity to 12 million passengers per year, by 2030. The third phase, planned for completion by 2050, will increase the total capacity to over 20 million passengers per year. The airport is planned to be connected with an airport expressway directly from the city.
Ground transportation services are provided by minibuses with up to 15 seats charging US$8 per person for shared rides, and minivans with up to 7 seats charging US$40 for private transfers.