Amid growing demand, Myanmar Airways International will up the frequency of its twice-weekly Phnom Penh-Yangon flights next month, according to the company’s website and an employee at the Phnom Penh International Airport office.

“In October we’ll expand to three flights per week,” Naing Theingi, the station manager for the airline, said.

From October 27 until March 29 next year, Myanmar Airways International will fly every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. The airline now flies only on the latter two days.

“To have more flights connecting Myanmar to Cambodia is a very good prospect for both tourism and trading,” said Ang Kim Eang, president of the Cambodia Association of Travel Agents. “Certainly Myanmar and Cambodia are similar cultures and Myanmar is one of the pilgrimage destinations for Cambodian people.”

Eang added that tourists and expatriates in Cambodia benefit from the increased frequency.

The international flag carrier of Myanmar resumed flights to Cambodia in December, after being suspended for about three months due to low demand.

Travel between the two countries is still low, with Myanmar tourists accounting for only 0.1 per cent of the total international arrivals to Cambodia in 2012. But the 4,744 Burmese who visited represented a 13 per cent increase from 2011.

A staff member at Myanmar’s embassy in Phnom Penh who declined to be named said visa requests from tourists and business people have grown in the last three years.