The first nonstop flight route connecting the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) to Siem Reap, Cambodia, launched in Shenzhen on Friday. The new service is also the first to connect the popular tourist destination with China’s four top-tier cities, which include Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

Travelers pose for a photo at a ceremony marking the inaugural direct flight between Shenzhen and Siem Reap, Cambodia, at the Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport on Friday. Bi Han

Siem Reap, Cambodia’s second-largest city, is the gateway to the magnificent temple complex of Angkor Wat, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest religious monument in the world.

The service offers one round-trip flight per week. The flight to Shenzhen (K6928) departs Siem Reap at 9:30 p.m. local time Thursday and arrives at 1:00 a.m. Friday, while the flight to Siem Reap (K6929) leaves Shenzhen at 6:20 a.m. Friday and lands at 7:50 a.m. local time.

This is the second direct flight route between Shenzhen and Cambodia, following the 2019 launch of the Shenzhen–Phnom Penh route. To accommodate surging summer demand, Air Cambodia has added extra flights on the Shenzhen–Phnom Penh route, increasing weekly departures from the Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport to 19.

The Shenzhen airport connects to 16 cities across eight Southeast Asian countries, operating more than 200 weekly departures. In the first half of this year, the Southeast Asian routes carried over 1.5 million passengers — more than half of the airport’s total international and regional traffic.

Where travelers once endured journeys of more than 10 hours with layovers, new nonstop services have reduced flying time between Shenzhen and Southeast Asian destinations to between three and five hours.

In 2024, ASEAN became Shenzhen’s largest trading partner, accounting for roughly 16% of the city’s total foreign trade. Southeast Asia remains the top outbound destination for GBA residents.

Also on Friday, Cambodia sent its inaugural shipment of fresh durians to China. A 17-ton consignment of the prized fruit landed in Shenzhen, a move made possible after China’s customs authority recently approved several Cambodian durian orchards and packing facilities for export.

With this approval, durian becomes the fifth Cambodian fresh fruit to gain direct market access to China, following bananas, mangoes, longans, and coconuts.