PHNOM PENH, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has seen a huge drop in air passengers since January due to the impact of the COVID-19, Sin Chansereyvutha, a spokesman of the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation, said here on Thursday.
"According to the statistics, when the COVID-19 broke out, airlines reported the decline of more than 20 percent in passengers in January, over 50 percent in February, over 70 percent in March, and up to over 90 percent in early April," he said in a press conference.
He said the virus has caused a "huge loss" to the civil aviation sector although the estimation has not been made yet.
Chansereyvutha said there have been 39 foreign and six local airlines operating flights in Cambodia, but due to the virus, currently, only a few of them still operate flights between Cambodia and China, Japan and South Korea.
"This is due to the impact of COVID-19 disease, passengers' concerns, lockdown by some countries, travel restrictions, and quarantine measures for passengers," he said.
According to the spokesman, to help offset losses caused by the pandemic, the government last month gave tax breaks for three months, from March to May, to the kingdom's six local airlines.
Cambodia has so far recorded a total of 122 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 98 patients cured, said a Ministry of Health statement on Thursday. Enditem
