Air China has announced plans for a new direct flight linking Phnom Penh and Beijing, a statement on the Facebook page of the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation said.

The new route was confirmed during a meeting between representatives of the airline and aviation officials on Tuesday. The inaugural flight is set to take off sometime in early November.

Air China says it plans to run three flights a week between the two countries’ capitals using an Airbus A320 aircraft.

However, State Secretariat of Civil Aviation spokesman Sin Chan Sereivutha told The Post on Tuesday that the company hadn’t yet applied for a flight permit. “This is the first flight for Air China to Cambodia,” he said.

The announcement comes amid the strong growth of Chinese visitors to Cambodia in the first half of this year.

Over 930,000 Chinese tourists arrived during the period – representing 31 per cent of total visitors. There were 380,000 Vietnamese visitors during the same period, according to data from the Ministry of Tourism.