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Myanmar, Malaysian Airlines Increase Flight Capacity

Posted on: Thursday, 6 October 2005, 09:00 CDT

Myanmar, Malaysian airlines increase flight capacity

YANGON, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Airlines of Myanmar and Malaysia will increase their flight capacity by scheduling to start daily direct flights between Yangon and Kuala Lumpur by Oct. 30 to meet growing passenger demand, according to Myanmar Times.

The Myanmar Airways International (MAI) and the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) currently fly between the two destinations five times a week.

Under a code-sharing agreement signed recently between the two airlines, the MAS will operate four times weekly, while the MAI three times weekly to ensure the availability of flights full week between the two capitals, the report said.

Passenger traffic between the two cities rose by 29 percent in 2004, while the route's load factor registered 72 percent, according to the Malaysian airline.

There are four flight destinations of the MAI -- Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and New Delhi, of which the New Delhi flight has been suspended since Sept. 16 until early next year. Previously, Hong Kong was also one of MAI's earliest flight destinations. That route was intermittently suspended and resumed. Despite the last resumption in August 2004, it stopped again early this year.

The MAI stood as the earliest Myanmar-foreign joint venture airline out of three flying international routes. The JV airline between the state-run domestic Myanma Airways and the Region Air based in Singapore, has been operating since 1993. The other two are the United Myanmar Airlines and the Air Myanmar.

Meanwhile, Myanmar and Nepal are planning to establish direct air link soon with a Nepalese airline, the Cosmic, proposing to fly between Kathmandu and Yangon beginning the open season in late this year to mainly facilitate pilgrims of the two Buddhist countries to visit each other nations' religious sites.

Besides, an aviation delegation of three countries -- Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, will visit Myanmar later this year to carry out a feasibility study on developing air links among CLMV countries which also include Myanmar.

Moreover, Myanmar and the Philippines are also exploring enhanced cooperation in the air sector and a negotiation is underway to work out an air services agreement between them, air industry sources said.

According to official statistics, besides the MAS, foreign airlines that link Yangon also includes Air China, Thai Airways International, Silk Air, Biman (Bangladesh), Indian Airlines, Lauda Air (Austria), Phuket Airlines (Thailand), Bangkok Airways and Qatar Airways (Middle-East).

Myanmar's domestic airlines are represented by one state-run Myanma Airways and three joint ventures which are Air Mandalay, Yangon Airways and Air Bagan. Of them, the Air Mandalay has extended its flight to Thailand's Chaing Mai as a regional one.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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