Techo International: The New Phnom Penh Airport, and What Moved

Phnom Penh switched to Techo International Airport (KTI) on 9 September 2025, and was formally inaugurated the following month. The old Phnom Penh International, close to the city on the north-west side, no longer handles the traffic.

Techo sits roughly 20 to 24 kilometres south of the centre - about 24 km from the Independence Monument. Allow 40 to 50 minutes, and more in the evening peak.

That is roughly double the old airport's run, and it is the single most common out-of-date fact in Phnom Penh travel advice. Hotel listings, guidebooks and blog posts written before September 2025 quote twenty minutes, and a great many of them have not been revised.

Cambodia's other airport moved too. Siem Reap-Angkor International opened on 16 October 2023 about 45 kilometres east of Siem Reap, a 45 to 60 minute drive against the old field's ten minutes - see the Siem Reap airport guide.

Both moves together change the domestic maths. Phnom Penh to Siem Reap is 55 minutes in the air but about four and a half hours door to door, against five and a half to six on a bus that drops you in the middle of town. The transport comparison sets that out.

Pre-booked private car is the least friction on arrival - a driver waiting with your name, air conditioning for a 45-minute run, and no negotiation after a flight.

Airport taxi at the official counter is straightforward and fixed-rate, typically a little more than a pre-booked car because you are buying it at the point of need.

Grab and PassApp both work and are usually the cheapest option, though pickup can be restricted to designated bays.

Hotel transfer - a lot of Phnom Penh hotels include or offer one, and now that the run is 40-50 minutes it is worth real money. Ask before booking anything separately.

Leaving: allow two and a half to three hours from your hotel for an international departure. That is 45 to 50 minutes of road plus normal airport time plus slack, and the evening peak south out of the city is genuinely slow.

Do not fly out the morning after an island night. Ferries from Koh Rong get cancelled in the wet months and there is a four-hour drive between the coast and this airport on top of the crossing.

Visa. Most nationalities can get a visa on arrival, or an e-Visa in advance from the official Cambodian government site. The e-Visa removes the queue after a flight; be careful to use the government domain rather than one of the many lookalike sites that add a fee.

Money. Cambodia runs on US dollars. ATMs dispense them, prices are quoted in them, and riel comes back only as change under a dollar at about 4,000 to the dollar - there are no US coins in circulation. Bring clean, untorn notes; damaged bills are routinely refused. Airport ATMs charge around USD 4-6 per withdrawal on top of your own bank.

SIM. Cellcard, Smart and Metfone all sell tourist data SIMs at the airport cheaply, with sensible allowances. Buy there rather than in town; the price difference is negligible.

Onward. Phnom Penh's bus and boat stations are mostly north and west of the centre, so staying central saves a fiddly cross-city run if you are heading to Siem Reap, Battambang or the coast the next morning.

Open-jaw is better than a return. Fly into Siem Reap and out of Phnom Penh and you never repeat the 315 km between them. Regional carriers price the legs separately, so it usually costs the same.

Arrival day is not a sightseeing day. Landing at two in the afternoon means reaching your hotel around three-thirty. Plan an easy evening: the riverfront along Sisowath Quay, where the city walks, and an early dinner.

Land before mid-afternoon if you want anything of the day. The Royal Palace and the National Museum are both morning propositions - the museum closes for lunch - so a late arrival costs you a full morning the next day too.

Departure day. The palace and museum in the morning and a mid-afternoon flight is workable if your bags are with the hotel. Anything tighter is not.

Two nights is the minimum for Phnom Penh and now more so, because the airport eats an extra hour at each end. Our two-day itinerary is built around that.

Where to sleep for an early flight: anywhere central is 40-50 minutes out, so there is no real advantage in picking a southern neighbourhood - stay where the city is good, in BKK1 or Daun Penh, and leave early. See where to stay.