Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport

Siem Reap–Angkor International Airport, opened in October 2023 on a new site 40 km east of the city, replaced the former REP airfield as Cambodia's principal leisure gateway. The Chinese-built, Yunnan Investment-operated facility sits on a 700-hectare plot and includes a 3,600 m (11,827 ft) concrete runway — a deliberate widebody-capable extension from REP's shorter strip — dimensioned to accept Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 long-haul operations. That runway length, combined with Angkor Wat's UNESCO tourism pull, places SAI firmly among the 534 largest despite the airport being barely two years into commercial service. The relocation was ordered by Cambodian authorities both to allow closer flight paths to the Angkor temple complex to be eliminated (reducing vibration impact on the monuments) and to unlock widebody growth that REP's runway could not accommodate. About 13 airlines operate 23 routes to 17 destinations (2026). Cambodia Airways, Sky Angkor, and Bayon Airlines anchor domestic and regional schedules; AirAsia, Bangkok Airways, Vietjet, Lanmei, China Eastern, China Southern, Korean Air, and Jeju Air operate the inbound leisure trunk from Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, Seoul, and multiple Chinese secondary cities. The terminal's nameplate capacity is 7M passengers, with provision for 12M in a planned second phase. SAI is operated under a 55-year Build-Operate-Transfer concession — one of the largest Chinese airport concessions in Southeast Asia — and is connected to central Siem Reap by a dedicated expressway. Its construction and opening shifted Cambodian aviation geography materially: REP closed to scheduled passenger traffic in 2023, and SAI is now the country's second-busiest international airport after Phnom Penh.