Korean Air will increase the size of the plane on its daily Phnom Penh to Seoul route at the end of the month in response to increased demand from tourists, a company official said today.

“Because passenger demand has been increasing every year, we have changed to a big new plane, that will start flights on the 27th of this month,” said Pen Vanndarong, sales and marketing executive at Korean Air.

Ministry of Tourism statistics show South Korea was the largest source of travellers to the Kingdom in January, with 42,939 arriving in the month – a 36.9 percent increase on the same month a year previous.

But Pen Vanndarong said he also noticed a rise of tourists from Japan and other regional countries wishing to use Korean Air’s flights.

“Last year, we had difficulties finding seats for our passengers. That why we changed to a larger plane – tourist demand is increasing,” he said.

The new aircraft is a 280-seat Airbus 330-300, nearly double the capacity of its 149-seat Boeing 737-800.