Myanmar to upgrade Yangon airport to int'l level: official media

YANGON, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar is implementing a plan to extend and upgrade Yangon International Airport to one capable of handling 3.8 million passengers a year and providing full service necessary to be an international airport, official media reported Sunday.



The plan is partly aimed at promoting international relations and the economic sector, said the New Light of Myanmar.

"Yangon International Airport can handle 2.7 million passengers a year, now its passenger arrival is reckoned at over 2 million a year and it will reach its highest capacity before long," Vice President U Tin Aung Myint Oo said in his tour to the airport Saturday.

Myanmar's domestic air transport capacity has risen 40 times, having been able to transport an average of 800,000 passengers by local flights yearly, an increase from over 20,000 in the past.

Meanwhile, the number of passengers of overseas flights has now reached 700,000 a year.

There are six domestic airlines in Myanmar including one state- owned, which is the Myanmar Airways, and five private-runs -- Air Mandalay, Yangon Airways, Air Bagan, Asian Wings and Kanbawza.

There is also another Myanmar international airline, the Myanmar Airways International, flying solely some foreign flights.

There are 13 foreign airlines flying Yangon which comprise Air China, China Southern Airline, Thai Airways International, Indian Airlines, Qatar Airways, Silk Air, Malaysian Airlines, Bangkok Airways, Mandarin, Jetstar Asia, Phuket Airline, Thai Air Asia and Vietnam Airlines.

Myanmar became a member of the International Civil Aviation Organization in 1948.

Source: Xinhua