PHNOM PENH-Outward bound travellers will soon be able to have tickets directly confirmed

and issued in Phnom Penh, thanks to a link up between the Scandinavian Airlines System

(SAS) and the local branch of the Thai travel agency, East-West Group.

SAS, which flies non-stop to Europe and has 71 destinations in the continent, has

also set up arrangements with locally-based carriers S.K. (Siam-Kampuchea) Air and

CIA (Cambodia International Airlines).

To date clients have had to wait at least 24 hours for their tickets to be delivered

by courier from Bangkok with the added danger of tickets being mislaid, according

to East West's Phnom Penh manager Nongnuj Pengsupaya. But SAS is to provide the East

West office with a computer link to the airlines' ticketing office in Munich, enabling

the tour company to confirm bookings the same day.

The arrangement will benefit those heading from Bangkok to the Middle East, Western

and Eastern Europe-including the Ukraine and Russia-and the Americas.

"We made deals making it possible to promote business to and from Cambodia.

. .bringing in tourists and bringing people out," said SAS regional manager

Axel Blom.

Main targets will be incoming tourists, U.N. soldiers and civilians, relatives of

expatriates working here, and Cambodians returning from overseas.