Cambodia Airp II

completed

The project company is Société Concessionnaire de l’Aéroport (SCA or the company), a special purpose company that holds a 45-year concession (from 1995) from the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) to operate the Phnom Penh International Airport (PPIA) at Phnom Penh, the Siem Reap International Airport (SRIA) at Siem Reap, and the Sihanoukville Airport (SIA) at Sihanoukville. PPIA serves as the main gateway to Cambodia while SRIA mainly caters to the tourist traffic visiting the various Angkor temples located in the nearby Angkor Archeological Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Sihanoukville was established in the 1950s and forms together with Phnom Penh and Siem Reap one of the destinations that has been identified by the RGC as cornerstones for the country’s short-term tourism development. The Sihanoukville airport, located 15 km from the city center, was built in the 1960's and remains a small airport with limited facilities. The concession for the development and operation of Sihanoukville Airport was awarded in March 2006 by the RGC to the company. SIA reopened in January 2007. The proposed project consists of: - the mandatory capital investments required under the concession for SIA for 2006 and 2007; - the terminal capacity increase at SRIA to provide service to the increasing passenger growth; and - the capital investments required at SIA in 2008-10, should traffic at the airport increase in accordance with the company’s projections. This would be IFC’s second investment in SCA. In June 2004, IFC provided a $10 million loan to SCA to support capital expenditures at PPIA and SRIA.