Myanmar airline to fly to India

Myanmar Airways International will extend its flight services to India later this year as part of its plan to stretch its wings to more international destinations.

Myanmar Airways International (MAI) will extend its flight services to India later this year as part of its plan to stretch its wings to more international destinations, the local Yangon Times reported on Thursday.

HT Image

The planned introduction of the India air route followed the resumption of MAI's flight services to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur on January 15, which were suspended for about three months for technical reasons.

With the prospective addition of India, the MAI will have four international flight destinations, which also include Singapore.

MAI is a joint venture between the state-run Myanmar Airways (MA) and Region Air of Singapore.

Besides MAI, Myanmar has MA and three private airlines - Air Mandalay, Yangon Airways and Air Bagan.

The three private airlines, in addition to their domestic flights, have also extended their services to Chiangmai, Phuket and Bangkok in Thailand, to Incheon in South Korea and to Singapore.

However, Air Bagan's Singapore flight had to be suspended on November 4 last year due to sanctions by the US, the airline said, adding that it will seek resumption of the flight by the peak tourist season of September this year.

There are 15 foreign airlines flying to Yangon, which include Thai Airways International, Indian, Qatar Airways, Silk Air, Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Hong Kong Express Airways, Mandarin Airlines, Malaysian Airlines, Bangkok Airways, Jetstar Asia, Phuket Airline and Thai Air Asia.

Myanmar and the United Arab Emirates reportedly initiated an agreement last week for operation of air services between the two countries.