In view of the recent growth in demand for air shipments of consumer goods like textiles, garments and footwear from Cambodia, several foreign airlines are adding air freight services to this southeast Asian country.
Malaysian national cargo carrier Raya Airways and Dubai’s Emirates Sky Cargo are among the recent ones to expand its cargo service to Cambodia.
According to Cambodia Airports that manages the country’s three international airports, the volume of air freight to and from the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh has risen by 14 per cent in 2015 to 38,065 tonnes.
With the recent growth in economy, cargo services had been generally expanding. Over the past decade, GDP growth has averaged about 7.7 per cent a year, one of the fastest in the world, says Sinn Chanserey Vutha, spokesman for the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA).
Raya Airways is the second dedicated cargo carrier to start running regular services to Cambodia, after Cathay Pacific Cargo, which initiated operations back in November 2014. The cargo carrier’s decision to add service to Phnom Penh was influenced by Cambodia’s growing garment and footwear sector that led to a substantial rise in import and export activities.
Total air freight shipments to and from Cambodia in 2015 was more than 38,000 tonnes, a 14 per cent rise over the previous year.
Raya Airways started its first flight to Phnom Penh on March 26. It has been operating a Boeing 727-200, which has a cargo payload capacity of 22 tonnes, on a circular route from Kuala Lumpur to Phnom Penh via Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, then back direct to Kuala Lumpur, company spokesperson Siti Rozalina Mohd Noor said.
“The main commodities are garments bound for the EU and US, and we are working with other airline operators to forward them to their final destination from our hub in Kuala Lumpur,” she said.
Raya Airways operates out of Malaysia’s Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport near Kuala Lumpur using a fleet of four Boeing aircraft, with two more aircraft expected for delivery by the end of the year.
The airlines will increase its flight frequency to Cambodia to two times a week. The fleet and route expansions are part of the freight carrier’s plan to triple the volume of transported cargo from 30,000 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes in the next five years, according to a Raya statement last month.
Meanwhile, Emirates Sky Cargo is expanding with a weekly MD-11F flight capable of carrying 80 tonnes.
“Cambodia’s air cargo market is growing at a robust rate with Europe and the United States being key export markets,” Emirates SkyCargo Senior Vice-President Hiran Perera said.
Foreign airlines understand that to keep up with the competitive market, they need to provide what the market needs, and cargo shipments bring in the maximum revenue for them. With Cambodia’s rising export potential, it was but natural that foreign airlines would want to make the most of it.
According to Cambodia Airports Communications & Marketing Director Khek Norinda, the volume of cargo at the Phnom Penh airport has grown by 17 per cent in the first three months of this year from the same period last year, a large portion of which comprised garments and footwear. Leather has been a major import.
