An airport officer stands guard at Phnom Penh International Airport in 2019. File Photo Hong Menea
Cambodia's three international airports have joined Spanish travel tech company Amadeus' Cloud platform Amadeus Flow, which connects over 1.6 billion a year to travel providers in over 190 countries around the world.
Amadeus describes itself as a builder of “critical solutions that help airlines and airports, hotels and railways, search engines, travel agencies, tour operators and other travel players to run their operations and improve the travel experience, billions of times a year, all over the world”.
In an April 27 announcement, Amadeus said: “Cambodia Airports, an affiliate of VINCI Airports and the developer and operator of the Kingdom's three international airports, chose Amadeus Flow, Amadeus' fully integrated cloud platform for airport passenger services, to rapidly deploy new passenger handling capacity via the internet as needed.
“With the new approach, Cambodia Airports can also temporarily reallocate resources not in use. One example would be by redistributing airline services between terminals, because its check-in desks and gates will no longer be tied to legacy fixed networks at specific points in the terminal.
“With Amadeus Flow, Cambodia Airports will harness the cloud to deliver passenger services from any location it chooses,” it said.
Amadeus' Asia-Pacific airport internet-technology head Sarah Samuel said: “Airports are at a crossroads when it comes to investment in technology to meet the needs of travellers – should they embrace cloud computing or continue to do things how they've always been done?
“At Amadeus we believe the airport industry has reached a tipping point, with the pandemic significantly accelerating the move to the cloud. This provides a number of opportunities for airports as we apply new innovations like biometrics to rebuild a better industry.
“We are delighted to partner with Cambodia Airports and look forward to working closely to realise their strategic vision and to address new challenges and opportunities over the long term,” she said.
Phnom Penh International Airport general Manager Herve Bonin said: “Passengers expect a smooth experience, and moving to the cloud with Amadeus means we can deliver that now and into the future.
“Sharing our long-term vision, Amadeus is the right partner to take care of this complexity behind the scenes so we can easily deploy new innovations that place our customers, passengers and airlines, at the very heart of our airport model.
“Combining this leading technology with recent key investments in facilities upgrades, our platforms are well prepared to welcome the next growth stage,” he said.
According to Cambodia Airports: “Under a public-private partnership signed with the Royal Government of Cambodia in 1995, Cambodia Airports holds the concession for the development and management of Cambodia's network of international airports serving the capital city of Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, home to the UNESCO World Heritage Angkor Archaeological Complex, and the port city and beach resort of Sihanoukville.
“The shareholders of Cambodia Airports are France's VINCI Airports – 70 per cent – and Muhibbah Masteron Cambodia – 30 per cent, a Malaysian-Cambodian joint venture.”
Cambodia booked just $1.023 billion in international tourism revenue last year, representing a 79.4 per cent nosedive from $4.919 billion in 2019 due to the sweeping effects of the global Covid-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Tourism reported on April 19.
The Kingdom welcomed 1,306,143 international tourists in 2020, down by 80.2 per cent from 6,610,592 in 2019, according to the 2020 Tourism Statistics Report.
It said the tourism and travel industry accounted for three per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020, a far cry from the 12.1 per cent chalked up in 2019.
