Inauguration of the Phnom Penh and Siem Reap airport expansions in Cambodia
15 March 2016 - Events - Cambodia
In Cambodia, where it has operated for 20 years, VINCI works through its subsidiary VINCI Airports to support airport traffic growth driven by economic momentum and tourism. The inauguration of the Phnom Penh and Siem Reap airport expansions takes place on 16 March 2016. These projects, which raise each airport’s capacity to 5 million passengers per year, move the two airports into a new international airport category.
VINCI Airports began operating in Cambodia 1995, through Cambodia Airports (formerly Société Concessionnaire des Aéroports). The public private partnership with the Government of Cambodia involves a standout dialogue that has made it possible to adapt the contract to changes in the economy and the international business situation over the past 20 years.
VINCI Airports manages three airports in Cambodia:
- Phnom Penh, since 1995;
- Siem Reap, since 2001, serving visitors to the Angkor temples;
- and Sihanoukville, since 2006, serving both tourism and industrial activity, since the city has the region’s only deep-water port.
Supporting airport traffic growth
In 2004, Cambodia returned to stability and security following a period of political turmoil at the end of the 1990s. Between 2004 and 2008, tourism grew exponentially. In 2004, the Phnom Penh airport served more than one million passengers for the first time and in 2008 it set a record with 1.7 million passengers. In 2016, Cambodia has one of the world’s most dynamic economies and its air traffic keeps pace with its growth, increasing by a factor of 10 between 1995 and 2015, from 600,000 to 6.5 million passengers. To prepare for future traffic flows, VINCI Airports took the initiative in 2011 of making substantial investments (some $100 million) to double the capacity of the Phnom Penh and Siem Reap airports.
Moving into a new international airport category
The Phnom Penh and Siem Reap airport expansion contracts covering design-build passenger terminal expansion and renovation works in occupied premises were signed in November 2013. The goal was to double the total surface area of each of the airports.
VINCI Airports used the expertise of VINCI Construction Grands Projets in the expansion project. Thanks to the exchange of information within VINCI, the expertise of the concession companies combines with that of the design-build construction companies to deliver projects that fully meet the needs of their future users. The same synergy is currently applied to the airport expansion project in Santiago, Chile.
On the Phnom Penh and Siem Reap airport expansions, VINCI Construction Grands Projets recruited workers locally, including people unused to construction work. To ensure safety, quality and schedule compliance, it set up a mobile worksite school, Skill Up, to transmit best practices and an understanding of the techniques used. Up to 1,300 people were working on the Phnom Penh project at the same time and up to 894 on the Siem Reap project. Throughout the construction work, carried out between December 2013 (start of work at Siem Reap) and February 2016 (completion of work at Phnom Penh), the airports remained in operation. This required constant coordination and responsiveness on the part of the works teams, the technical department and the contractor.
Showcasing and preserving the local heritage
The architecture of the Phnom Penh airport is a fairly classical example of modern capital city design, but the Siem Reap airport, near the Angkor temples, takes inspiration from Cambodian tradition, with a lofty metal structure. The airport’s decorative elements were made by artists from Artisans d’Angkor, a social enterprise managed by VINCI Airports in partnership with the State that was set up to perpetuate and foster the development of traditional Khmer crafts. The organisation currently employs 1,200 people, including 800 craftspeople, across 48 production sites.
VINCI Airports signed a five-year agreement in 2011 to support a major archaeological excavation programme at the site of Siem Reap airport near the Angkor temples. Siem Reap is the cradle of the Khmer civilisation and the excavations are expected to provide archaeologists with information on the habitat and way of life of Cambodians in the 10th and 11th centuries. They also serve two major goals:
- preserving the Cambodian heritage and culture by bringing new scientific knowledge about the Angkor temples to light;
- setting the stage for a well-thought-out expansion of the airport infrastructure to keep pace with strong traffic growth.
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3, number of airports operated under VINCI Airports concession in Cambodia
5 million, annual passenger capacity at the Phnom Penh and Siem Reap airports following expansion works
x10, airport traffic growth in Cambodia between 1995 and 2015
1,300, number of people on the worksite at peak production
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