State-owned Lao Airlines has reduced its international service given the fact of the global economic downturn, said news reports.
The airline has since the end of April cut to five times a week its daily services from the capital Vientiane to Hanoi, Vietnam and Kunming in China, Rada Sunthorn, the airline's commercial director was quoted as saying.
Daily flights from the tourist destination of Luang Prabang to Bangkok and to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand have also been cut to five times a week, while the Luang Prabang-Siem Reep service now operates twice a week from thrice, he said.
A drop in tourist arrivals was evident in mid-April during the Buddhist New Year holiday period when there were only four flights a day between Vientiane and Luang Prabang, Rada said.
The airline carried 361,000 people in 2008, an increase of 7 percent year-on-year./.