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Cambodia’s Lanmei performs inaugural flight; Small Planet secures Cambodian AOC
October 6th 2017
No other aviation market in the Asia-Pacific is as dynamic at the moment as Indochina. Read More » In Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar, investment in airlines is abundant.
Following the launch of JC International Airlines in Cambodia in March, a new carrier, Lanmei Airlines, performed its maiden revenue service last Friday, from Sihanoukville to Macau and on to Palau. It leveraged the many fifth freedom rights available in the Chinese gambling enclave to inaugurate the route.
From October 9, Chinese-backed Lanmei is planning A319 services from its Phnom Penh base to Hanoi (four-weekly) and Ho Chi Minh City (four-weekly via Siem Reap) as well as Macau, also four-weekly via Siem Reap.
Spokesman for Cambodia’s State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA),Sinn Chanserey Vutha, said the Macau market was “a good opportunity for the airline as it will provide more options for casino tourists and workers”. He added that expat workers in Macau could also come to Cambodia on tour packages and/or for their visa runs.
Initially, Lanmei will be competing with Cambodia Angkor Air as well as JC International. The former is looking to more than double its fleet by adding four ATRs and eight Airbus jets by 2020 to compete with JC.
Soon, however, Lithuania’s Small Planet Airlines will join the pack. The European leisure carrier this week obtained a Cambodian air operator’s certificate (AOC) from the SSCA to offset weak demand and low aircraft utilization during the European winter.
The Cambodian venture, also called Small Planet Airlines, is 51%-owned by Aviation Invest Cambodia. Small Planet Group holds equity of 29% and the remaining 20% is controlled by the carrier’s prinicipals.
Small Planet has been leasing aircraft to Cambodian airlines for five years, but this year will be the first time it will fly under its own AOC, with a fleet of five aircraft.
“Up to now, we were flying here only in cooperation with local airlines,” said Cambodia-based Small Planet Airlines CEO, Erikas Zubrus. “We expect to have more independence when taking business decisions and improve our aircraft utilization.”
The new entrant plans to launch flights from Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville to Hong Kong, China, South Korea and Japan. “If everything goes to plan, the company will have the capacity to carry one million passengers yearly. Most available seats will be sold through local travel agencies,” Zubrus said.
The Small Planet Group has 18 A320s and four A321s. It also holds AOCs in Lithuania, Poland and Germany. It was trying for a Thai AOC, but the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) did not immediately agree to issue one amid the on-going AOC recertification requirement for Thai airlines.
