TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Cambodia Airways has halted direct flights between Phnom Penh and Taichung as of March 6, just four months after it introduced the flight route between the capital of Cambodia and the central Taiwan city.

On November 21, the airline inaugurated the first Phnom Penh-Taichung flight, optimistic about the prospects of Taichung as a low-price air travel destination, reports Liberty Times.

The company cited less than satisfactory passenger volume as the cause of the route’s cancellation, partly attributed to inadequate promotion, the report quoted General Manager Wu Li-ping (吳麗萍) of Far East International Tourism Group.

Cambodia Airways is eyeing a new route flying from Phnom Penh to Bangkok in Thailand, she added.

Separately, Mandarin Airlines (華信航空) was originally slated to introduce a flight route between Taichung and the Philippines coming April 1. The plan was scrapped due to lackluster ticket sales impacted by the pilot strike of the airline’s parent company earlier this year.

Businessmen based in central Taiwan have urged Mandarin Airlines to consider opening flight routes from Taichung to Cambodia. They lament the limited choice of air transportation between the two countries, which currently see flights operated by EVA Air and China Airlines departing from the northern city of Taoyuan, according to the report.