Cambodia Travel News

Siem Reap Airport Temporarily Shutdown

Issued: 17 October 2001

Siem Reap Airport has been temporarily shutdown because a plane run off the tarmac and stuck in mud since 15 Oct 2001. No injury or death on the seven passengers on board of the Siem Reap Airways International, a subsidiary of Bangkok Airways, flying in from Ho Chi Minh City.

There is no equipment on site to lift the plane out of the mud and back on its wheels. The equipment and engineers were supposed to be flown in from Bangkok. Right now the official re-opening is planned for Thursday 18 October although we strongly hope that it will be before that date.

Hundreds of passengers and tourists were stranded at the Siem Reap Airport on Monday. Several passengers have been finding ways to leave Siem Reap, either by boat to Phnom Penh or by road straight to Bangkok (via Poipet). The road Phnom Penh to Siem Reap is not recommended at the moment as it will take around 10 hours due to flood damage.

As no new passengers can arrive since Sunday evening (unless they arrive by boat or road) there are no passengers stranded in Siem Reap at the moment. There are passengers stranded in Bangkok, Saigon, Hong Kong and Laos as all the international flights to/from Siem Reap from these cities have been cancelled.

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