OFFICIALS from the United Arab Emirates and Cambodia are revising a long-standing Memorandum of Understanding for the launch of new routes to the Kingdom.

Soy Sokhan undersecretary of state at the Secretariat of State for Civil Aviation said yesterday that both governments had agreed for a working group to revise the 2005 MoU, with a view to running  flights between the two countries. The working group includes three director generals from UAE’s civil aviation authority and SSCA officials.

Soy Sokhan said that around four or five airlines running in UAE had shown an interest in beginning operations in Cambodia. Both sides, under the revisions, would consider whether to run either direct or connecting flights to the Kingdom.

“We are going to discuss in detail about the flight traffic [options]. But, we will suggest them to operate seven flights a week,” he said.

The previous MoU, he said, had failed to yield results because of a lack of consumer demand. But change is on the horizon.

“They decided to urge us to upgrade the existing MoU because I think they already did a marketing study about the potential of our country – the very good base of our tourism industry as well as the improvement of our economy,” he said.

The updated agreement will be sent to both governments for approval. While Soy Sokhan said that SSCA would encourage national airline Cambodia Angkor Air to consider any new route.  “I hope that we will begin operating [a UAE route] in the middle of next year,” he said.