Air Hanuman - flying Pattaya - Siem Reap

[Janus]

I have been waiting for this connection.

From The Phnom Penh Post, Friday, September 2012:

"An unusual and ambitious тАШairline,тАЩ Air Hanuman, is about to take off in Siem Reap to provide thrice-weekly flights from Siem Reap airport to Pattaya.

Flights to Pattaya are slated to commence on Wednesday, October 10, departing Siem Reap at 2pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with a return flight to Siem Reap at 4pm on the same days.

For the Pattaya leg, the flights will land at U-Taphao International Airport, a joint civil-military public airport about a 45 minute drive from Pattaya.

Air Hanuman will operate three aircrafts of type B737-300 with 144 seats and B737-500 with 187 seats, and Tonle Sap Airlines will operate the Air Hanuman flights as charter flights.

Air HanumanтАЩs website says, тАЬAir Hanuman was established with the dream of making flying from Siem Reap to Pattaya possible for everyone. Together with our associate companies, LP Tours Pattaya, Garuda Travel Services, Long Pao Group and Corporate Marketing Intl., Evans Mark- eting, Skal International Cambodia, Air Hanuman is set to take low-cost flying to an all new high with our belief, тАШaffordable Direct flights to/ from Siem Reap & PattayaтАЩ.тАЭ

Of the associated companies listed above, Air Hanuman will operate Garuda Travel Services in Siem Reap and LP Tours in Pattaya.

Corporate Marketing International and Evans Marketing belong to Charles Evans, who is also president of Sk├еl International Cambodia, a global organisation of tourism leaders тАЬpromoting global tourism and friendship.тАЭ

The principals of the company are Chris Ho, chief executive, and Michael Foidl, director of sales.

In an online statement, Charles Evans said his agency Corporate Marketing was engaged under contract by Chris Ho. Evans added, тАЬPersonally, I am a business partner and the Air Hanuman director of publications (In Flight Magazine) and merchandising.тАЭ

Director of sales Michel Foidl told Insider that the company sees тАЬbig potentialтАЭ in bringing the tourist hotspots of Siem Reap and Pattaya together.

He described the main target groups as тАЬexpats who live in Siem Reap or in Pattaya, young people who want to travel like backpackers but have a higher budget, and families who want to see the temples of Angkor and visit the beaches of Pattaya before they return home.тАЭ

Air HanumanтАЩs promotional campaign promises return flights тАЬfrom US$99.тАЭ "

[paperboy]

WOW

Thats great news, and the price is even better, Im planning my 2013 trip and was looking at the train, BUT now
bugger that, for 75 Euros im on the plane. Just hope its still running next june 2013. :party

[fedssocr]

Will be interesting to see how long they can charge $99. Or how many tickets are available at that price. Travel forums are full of people asking how to get between Bangkok and Siem Reap without paying a fortune to Bangkok Airways. Driving down to UTP could be worthwhile.

[kjun12]

Driving down to UTP could be worthwhile.
You are most correct. I have never understood why some other airline does not fly between Bangkok and Siem Reap.

[fedssocr]

I'm guessing there is some sort of exclusive contract or something that PG managed to negotiate to keep the competition out. It seems like a no-brainer for TG or Air Asia to fly the route.

[kjun12]

I'm sure you are correct. But it appears that some other airline must be salivating for that route.

[ceejay]

There used to be 2 airlines serving Siem Reap and Bangkok - Bangkok Air and Siem Reap Air. Siem Reap Air was blacklisted because of safety issues and for a while Bangkok Air operated its planes, but ultimately it closed. Bangkok Air then managed to keep the route as a monopoly. How it managed to persuade the Thai and, in particular, Cambodian, authorities to allow that one can only speculate.

[aot871]

I maybe wrong , but i was told bangkok air , hold a certain % ownership of siam reap airport,

[fedssocr]

I maybe wrong , but i was told bangkok air , hold a certain % ownership of siam reap airport,

I'm pretty sure that is correct. They also owned or part-owned Siem Reap Airlines (Air/Airways/whatever) and even shared some aircraft.

Just hope that it's not bad weather when trying to land in Siem Reap as the Cambodians seem quite happy to open fire on airplanes flying in from Thailand if they confuse their purpose it seems !!! :-(

http://khmerization.blogspot.co.uk/2012 ... ngkok.html (http://khmerization.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/cambodian-troops-fire-on-bangkok.html)

[pong]

some facts got mixed up hre.
1.BKk air OWNED SR-air, planes were interchanged. SR-air was never blacklisted, but after some years the Khmer wanted to start up-again- their ''own'' airline and had to get competition ruthlessly move away. Which is as things usually go in Khmerland.
2.Bkk-air does NOT own SR airpt. But they hav handsomely paid off the Khmer in charge-rumour has it even a few dozen US$ per pAX! and thus got that monopoly and this explaines the high fares.
3. ''all those'' Qs about getting to SR-these have also been answered the same nr of times in about any conceivable travel-forum and thye are just for th looking at travelfish.org. in short: do not bother with train, unless you are a diehard of the iron rooster.
3b. since 1/7 direct THROUGH buses are now allowd to cross border TH-KH, and several buslines have started to run such from BKK to PnPN-not via SR.
and my opinion:
4.any previous attempt to open direct air from PTY-that dreadful mafia controlled UTP, have ended after a few weeks due to hardly any pax. As has been the fate of about all of Khmerlands 5+ new-start-up airlines in the last 15 years.

[Janus]

There seems to be a growing demand - or?
At least I would like to see some competition and hopefully lower prices. :happy7:

From Phnom Pehn Post Friday 21. 2012:
NEW FLIGHTS TO BANGKOK
Cambodia Angkor Air will start flights to Bangkok this November from Siem Reap. The service will operate four times weekly, and flights may increase to daily if thereтАЩs good response.
The only airline flying the Bangkok-Siem route is Bangkok Airways.
A service between Phnom Penh and Bangkok is being considered.
Next year, the airline plans to start services between Siem Reap and Hanoi, and Phnom Penh and Hanoi. Also scheduled sometime in the not-to-distant future are flights to cities in China and Japan from Siem Reap.

[Janus]

I have been doing some research on the flights with Hanuman Air while being in Siem Reap right now and seeing their big posters at my hotel.
As the web site still is "under construction" I made a phone call.

The price for a one way ticket is 188$ + Tax 25$ 213 USD :angryfire: :angryfire:

To get a ticket for the price of 99$ you will have to make your reservation 45 days in advance.
I like to ad: I would not be surprised if these "promotion" tickets will be sold out very quick. :protest:

What seemed to be a nice possibility is a none existing possibility for me.:crazy:

[jay99]

Sadly Air Hanuman seemed to have gone off the air!
Website gone, office no reply and nothing can be found online about their maiden flight earlier this month!
Looks like it's back on the bus, truck or taxi to Siem Reap and back from Pattaya :angry5:

[paperboy]

HI
was looking foward to going to seim reap by air, but if its not possible whats the best way to get there, from Pattaya???
Ive seen the train from Bkk then over the border and onto bus, but is there a mini-bus or car from pattaya that i could get to
take me to Seam Reap
thanks

Below is a message I've just received from Air Hanuman via their Facebook page so it appears they are still in operation .......as to whether I'm going to risk booking and paying up front for anything in the short term until their "technical difficulties" are sorted out might be a whole other story - but here's the details for anyone who choses to do that if it helps......


From Air Hanuman

We sincerely apologize for the inconveniences caused by the absence of our website. We are experiencing a few technical difficulties, which we hope will be resolved within a week or so.

Air Hanuman is still in operation. Please contact our head office in Cambodia for any inquiries or bookings. We are available from 9AM-11AM and 1PM-5PM everyday, except Sundays.

Tel: +855 (63) 966 883

[joe552]

I wouldn't fly with a company which can't maintain a website, let alone a plane. :dontknow:

[bruce_nyc]

I wouldn't fly with a company which can't maintain a website, let alone a plane. :dontknow:

A very good point.

I was thinking the exact same thing.

In light of all this, and the fact that "D" has already been to Siem Riep.... and none of us have ever been to Chiang Mai, we're thinking of going to Chiang Mai for one week, instead of Siem Riep. I believe we can fly there cheaply and conveniently on NokAir.

Is that a good choice?

[joe552]

Chang Mai is certainly worth visiting, but I found 3/4 days enough - really depends on how you like to spend your time.

Hi,

this airline has never operated at all.
I guess it is a big scam just to get some money out of people who are ready to book their flights.
I checked in the past 2 weeks at http://www.cambodia-airports.com/index.php?airport=REP however none of their flights are listed there both for departure and also for arrival. If they dont operate from this airport (there is only one in Siem Reap) where are they operating from? From the rice paddies? :evil4: And did you ever hear from anybody who has used this airline?

[a447]

Yep, I've given up on them and am going to fly with Bangkokair.

[NickysGayPattaya]

I'm not saying anything about their veracity or long term stability. However I just went to their office in Naklua. it is open and staffed. The girl there apologised for their website being down and said it would be back next week.

She also could give no explanation why the Siem Reap airport site shows they don't fly.

As a matter of interest - U-Tapao doesn't list them either ... http://www.utapao.com/flight_inter.php

It's all very bizarre and rings major alarm bells with me - apart from the fact they are still delivering advertising boards all over Pattaya (Pattaya Hotmale got one the other day) and their office is open.

IF I were flying, I'd go Bangkok Air too!

Nicky

So, all of the above sounds a bit crazy for a new airline and they either are REALLY bad at their marketing - although the fact we all know about them and have noticed their advertising etc would suggest otherwise perhaps - so aside from that has anyone on the board 'actually" flown with them or do we know anyone who has ? As whilst it all sounds a bit ropey "surely" even with it being Thailand or not etc no one could get away with just running a complete scam operation at this level, which leads me to believe they are actually flying but are just REALY bad at their PR and marketing ?? Anyone any ideas ?

Maybe they are following the Aeroflot marketing strategy - i.e no obvious strategy at all, a website which functions intermittently, and freakishly weird pricing which throws up anomalies like Economy being more expensive than Business - e.g. BKK-LHR 3/6/12 Flight SU271/263 - Economy 1385Euro, Business Class 1139 Euro)

:sign5:

Speaking of flight prices generally I am still on cloud nine as for I think the first time EVER I actually managed to get my finger out early and went ahead and booked my flight ticket about two and half months ago, now usually I do the old "I wonder will it drop coming closer to the time or not thing" - and of course it never does - so this time I though 'ah fuck it" and just went ahead and booked it anyway - and on checking the other day the same flight that cost me ┬г599 is now going for ┬г1499 ! :-) So for ONCE I really feel like I got a bargain and am over the moon as it's my cheapest Christmas airfare ever :-))

[bruce_nyc]

Awesome! Congrats, NIrish! Enjoy!

[fedssocr]

Have they actually started flying? I thought it was basically a sort of charter operation just like that other new airline that is supposed to fly the same route.