Posted: 01 April 2011 0039 hrs Source: AFP/de
Dancers perform at Phnom Penh International Airport as Air France resumes flights to Cambodia after 37 years. (AFP Photo/Tang Chhin Sothy)
PHNOM PENH: An inaugural Air France flight landed in Cambodia on Thursday, marking the reopening of a route closed 37 years ago as bombs pounded the capital and the Khmer Rouge prepared to seize power.
The airline, which first started flying to Phnom Penh in 1947 when Cambodia was still a French colony, is the first European carrier to fly to a country that last year welcomed over two million tourists.
The last Air France flight left Phnom Penh in June 1974, just months before the Khmer Rouge closed the borders and launched a radical revolution that plunged the country into one of the worst horrors of the 20th century.
Attending the official ceremony is a royal former Cambodian Air France flight attendant, who worked on one of the last flights to Paris.
Princess Sylvia Sisowath, a cousin of former Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk, said she remembers rushing to get passengers onto the plane as bombs were raining down nearby on Khmer Rouge fighters.
The airline, which first started flying to Phnom Penh in 1947 when Cambodia was still a French colony, is the first European carrier to fly to a country that last year welcomed over two million tourists.
The last Air France flight left Phnom Penh in June 1974, just months before the Khmer Rouge closed the borders and launched a radical revolution that plunged the country into one of the worst horrors of the 20th century.
Attending the official ceremony is a royal former Cambodian Air France flight attendant, who worked on one of the last flights to Paris.
Princess Sylvia Sisowath, a cousin of former Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk, said she remembers rushing to get passengers onto the plane as bombs were raining down nearby on Khmer Rouge fighters.
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