At yesterday's "Meeting on Investment Opportunity and Cooperation between Thailand and Cambodia", a Thai investor again raised the question of the expensive fare - currently Bt9,350 to Bt9,730 for a round trip, excluding fuel surcharge and taxes.

Prasidh said Bangkok Airways charged an "extraordinary fare" - a 1,000-kilometre fare for a 500-km journey. He urged Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth, the founder and CEO of Bangkok Airways, to lower the price as soon as possible.

The dispute is nothing new. Last month, in response to the same accusation by the Cambodian Hotel Association, Prasert said the deal between the airline and the Cambodian government signed in 1997 was legal.

Prasert also claimed that the airline had put Angkor Wat on the tourism map when it was still an obscure destination.

In the first nine months of this year, Bangkok Airways carried nearly 90,000 passengers on the route. Its monopoly deal for the route will expire in 2009.

The airline has been caught up in many public spats. Last week it gave in to the protesting residents of Koh Samui and scrapped a plan to increase fares between the resort-island and Bangkok by 20 per cent.

Cambodia's tourism industry performed well in the first half of the year, with the number of visitors rising 19.5 per cent to 813,392. With various economic development schemes with neighbouring countries such as Thailand and Vietnam in the pipeline - notably the proposed Poipet Special Economic Zone just next to Aranyaprathet - more visitors will be expected.

Prasidh said he favoured competition over monopoly and added that the Bangkok Airways deal would not be forever.

Ki Nan Tsui 

The Nation