India and Cambodia have again pledged to establish direct flights between the two countries to boost tourism, a statement released yesterday by the Ministry of Tourism reads.

The latest push, which follows a meeting on Monday between Tourism Minister Thong Khon and India’s Ambassador to Cambodia Naveen Srivastava, is one in a long line of pledges since 2013, when direct flights were first intended to be established.

“It keeps coming up again and again for many years, hopefully it will be finalised in the years to come,” said VR Ashok, attache at the Embassy of India.

“The number of parties involved is slowing it down, because it has to deal with the government, private airlines [and so on].”

Although the Ministry of Tourism continues to announce plans of a direct flight, the target date of its finalisation is unknown.

“We don’t talk about challenges yet, but it will help more tourists come to India and Cambodia so this flight is very important,” said Tith Chantha, secretary of state at the Ministry of Tourism.

“I don’t know how long it will take, we just plan, we don’t know how far along we are in the plan.”