Returning to Cambodia Through Techo Airport (KTI): What's Changed Since Your Last Visit

Why your next Cambodia arrival will feel unfamiliar

You have done this before. You know the drill — land in Phnom Penh, fill in the little paper card, line up at Immigration, get your stamp, find a tuk-tuk. So it is fair to expect your return trip to be muscle memory. It will not be, and that is not your memory failing you. Cambodia has genuinely changed the way air travelers arrive, and three of those changes hit the moment you step off the plane.

The headline one is the airport. The Phnom Penh you flew into last time does not operate anymore. The old airport (code PNH) was retired and replaced by a brand-new facility, Techo International Airport (code KTI), which opened on 9 September 2025. It sits in a different location, it is far larger, and the route into the city is different from the one you remember. If you booked a flight to "Phnom Penh," you are landing at KTI whether you noticed the code change or not.

Beyond the airport, two paperwork changes catch returning travelers off guard: there is now a mandatory e-Arrival Card that did not exist on older trips, and your previous eVisa is not reusable because the Cambodia eVisa is single-entry. This guide walks through all three changes in order, so nothing surprises you at the gate. For the full country-level picture — fees, documents, processing, everything in one place — our Cambodia visa hub for US citizens is the canonical reference, and when you are ready you can apply for your next eVisa straight away.

1. 1
   Book and plan around KTI

   Your "Phnom Penh" flight now lands at Techo International (KTI), which replaced the old PNH airport on 9 September 2025 — budget a longer, pricier transfer into the city.

2. 2
   Apply for a fresh eVisa

   The Cambodia eVisa is single-entry, so your old one is gone: file a new Tourist eVisa $80 or Business eVisa $90, approved in 3–5 days.

3. 3
   File a new e-Arrival Card

   Complete the 14-field e-Arrival Card within 7 days before your flight ($20 verified through us) and receive a QR code to present at KTI.

4. 4
   Clear the digital arrival at KTI

   Present your eVisa PDF and e-Arrival QR at Immigration; entry is recorded digitally via v-Pass, so a wet-ink passport stamp may not appear.

5. 5
   Know the changed rules

   The automatic tourist extension ended November 2025 and all 7 Thailand land borders have been closed since June 2025 — adjust any old overland or extension plans.

Change #1: you land at KTI now, not the old PNH airport

The single biggest change for returning Americans is the airport itself. On 9 September 2025, Cambodia retired the old Phnom Penh International Airport (PNH) — the compact terminal close to the city that you almost certainly used on your last visit — and opened Techo International Airport (KTI) in its place. KTI is a far larger, modern facility built to handle Phnom Penh's growth for decades, and it is the airport every "Phnom Penh" flight now lands at.

The practical differences start the moment you land. KTI sits farther from central Phnom Penh than the old airport did, so the drive into the city takes longer and the fare is higher than you may have budgeted from last time. Plan for a longer transfer, and do not assume the 15-minute hop you remember still applies — it does not. The terminal layout is new to everyone, including frequent flyers, so even seasoned returners are reading signage from scratch on the way to Immigration.

If your muscle memory is telling you to look for "PNH" on the departures board or on your luggage tag, retrain it: the code is KTI. Bookings, transfers, and ride apps all reference the new airport now, and the old one no longer takes commercial flights. Our explainer on why Phnom Penh's airport moved to KTI covers the switch in full — the timeline, the new location, and why your old airport code is gone for good.

Change #2: there is a new arrival step — the e-Arrival Card

On your earlier trips, the arrival paperwork was a paper card handed out on the plane or grabbed at a counter — name, passport number, where you are staying, a quick scribble before the line. That paper card is gone for air arrivals. In its place is the Cambodia e-Arrival Card, a digital declaration you complete before you fly rather than in the cramped Immigration queue. If your last visit predates this system, it is the step most likely to catch you out.

The e-Arrival Card is mandatory for every air traveler and is separate from your visa — two different systems, two different steps. It runs 14 fields across three short sections: your passport and personal details, your flight and Cambodia address, and a brief customs declaration. The catch returning travelers miss is the timing window: you file it within 7 days before your arrival, not weeks ahead and not at the gate. File too early and it falls outside the window; forget it entirely and you are sorting it out at arrivals when you would rather be heading to your hotel.

Done right, the payoff is a smoother arrival than you remember. You complete the Card in advance, you receive a QR code, and at KTI you present that QR rather than filling anything out on the spot. We handle the e-Arrival Card for $20 USD, verified through us, covering all 14 fields and the 7-day timing so it is valid for your specific flight. Our step-by-step Techo Airport arrival walkthrough shows exactly where the QR fits into the KTI flow from gate to taxi.

Change #3: your old eVisa is gone — you need a fresh one

Returning travelers often assume an old approval is worth something. It is not. The Cambodia eVisa is single-entry, which means it covers exactly one arrival and is consumed the moment you exit the country. The eVisa from your last trip was finished the day you flew home, even if your 30-day stay still had days left on paper. There is no renewing it, no reactivating it, and no riding the same visa back in.

So your return trip needs a brand-new eVisa, filed from scratch. The good news is that the price and timing have not changed and the application is light: Tourist eVisa $80 USD or Business eVisa $90 USD, approved in 3–5 days and delivered as a printable PDF by email. The eVisa is valid for 3 months from issue and grants a 30-day single-entry stay — same numbers a returning traveler would recognize, applied to a fresh application each trip.

Two more rule changes are worth flagging if your last visit was a while ago. The automatic tourist extension that some travelers used to lean on ended in November 2025, so you can no longer stretch a Tourist eVisa from inside the country — for a long stay, the Business eVisa is the route, since it is the only Cambodia visa you can extend in-country. And every trip also needs its own e-Arrival Card; neither the visa nor the Card carries over. Our guide on why returning Americans need a new eVisa every trip walks through the single-entry logic and what (almost nothing) carries over.

The arrival flow at KTI is more digital than you remember

Even once you have the new airport, the e-Arrival Card, and a fresh eVisa sorted, the arrival itself looks different from the manual, paper-and-stamp process older trips ran on. KTI was built around a more digital flow, and the steps lean on screens and QR codes rather than handwriting and ink.

When you reach Immigration, you present your eVisa and your e-Arrival QR code, and the process is largely scanned rather than stamped. Many returning travelers are surprised that they may not get the familiar wet-ink entry stamp they used to collect — Cambodia now records entry digitally through a v-Pass system, so your proof of entry can be a digital record rather than a physical page in your passport. That is normal, not a mistake at the desk. Keep your e-Arrival QR and your eVisa PDF handy on your phone, with a printed backup, so you can present whichever an officer asks for.

There is one practical upside to a less stamp-dependent system: fewer blank passport pages get burned per trip, which matters for frequent returners. But it also means you should not panic if you flip your passport open afterward and find no new stamp — the entry is logged either way. Our explainer on the Cambodia v-Pass and the no-stamp arrival covers what your proof of entry looks like now and why a missing stamp is not a problem.

A quick re-orientation for your second (or fifth) trip

If it has been a couple of years since your last visit, here is the short version of everything that is different, in the order it affects your trip. None of it is hard once you know it is coming — the trouble only starts when a returning traveler runs on outdated muscle memory.

• Book and plan around KTI, not PNH. The old airport is retired; your "Phnom Penh" flight lands at Techo International (KTI), farther from the city. Budget a longer, pricier transfer.
• File a fresh e-Arrival Card within 7 days before your flight. This 14-field digital declaration did not exist on older trips and is mandatory for every air arrival — $20 USD verified through us.
• Apply for a new eVisa. Your old one is single-entry and was consumed when you left — Tourist $80 USD or Business $90 USD, approved in 3–5 days, delivered as a printable PDF by email.
• Expect a digital arrival. QR codes and e-gates have largely replaced the paper card and the wet-ink stamp; a v-Pass digital record may be your proof of entry instead of a passport stamp.
• Forget the old land-border and extension habits. All 7 Thailand-Cambodia land borders have been closed since June 2025, and the automatic tourist extension ended in November 2025.

The two changes most likely to disrupt an old routine are the closed Thailand land borders and the ended tourist extension. If your previous trip involved crossing overland from Thailand, that route is not available right now — you fly the leg instead, and each flight into Cambodia is still a fresh single entry needing its own eVisa. And if you planned to arrive on a Tourist eVisa and simply extend once you were in the country, that path closed in November 2025; the Business eVisa is now the route for a long stay. When you are ready for the new round, you can apply for your next Cambodia eVisa in a few minutes — most returners move far faster than their first time.

Putting it together before you fly back

The arrival you remember has changed in three concrete ways, and all three are easy to handle once you see them coming. You land at Techo International (KTI), not the old PNH airport, so plan a longer transfer into the city. You file a new e-Arrival Card within 7 days before the flight — a step that did not exist on older trips. And you apply for a fresh eVisa, because the one from last time was single-entry and is long gone.

None of it is harder than your first trip; most of it is faster, because you already know the rhythm of the application and most of the five-item pack is still on your phone. Tourist eVisa $80 USD or Business eVisa $90 USD, both approved in 3–5 days, both delivered as a printable PDF by email, both with free resubmission if Immigration flags a correction, all backed by US-timezone support. Then a fresh e-Arrival Card for the arrival itself: $20 USD verified through us, 14 fields, filed within 7 days before you fly.

Next steps and related reading for returning travelers: apply for your next Cambodia eVisa when you are ready to lodge, bookmark the Cambodia visa hub for US citizens as your single canonical reference, read up on why Phnom Penh's airport moved to KTI so the new location is no surprise, and step through the full Techo Airport arrival walkthrough before you land.