Airlines in Myanmar

I%26#39;ll be travelling to Myanmar on December 26, and have had to re-arrange some flights due to Air Mandalay%26#39;s bizarre schedule.

I have been offered seats on Air Bagan and Yangon Airways flights, but have heard some things about those airlines being less safe/reliable than Air Mandalay and also I have read that the U.S has sanctions against Yangon Ariways and Air Bagan, so I%26#39;m concerned that it might be a problem flying with those guys..

Any experiences or information that anyone has on those airlines woud be much appreciated..thanks.

Airlines in Myanmar

Have flown Yangon Airways a few times-very efficient,modern aircraft and sound safety briefing.

Air Bagan is part of Htoo Group,not Bush%26#39;s best mate and did have a crash (no fatalities) early this year but their ATR aircaft are inspected annually by the French makers and serviced by fully qualified engineers.

If you are worried then Google them and also see their website

http://www.airbagan.com/

If you see my reply to the posting on ';Air Mandalay schedules'; you will see I am flying with them on 3rd Jan!!!

Airlines in Myanmar

I traveled with Air Bagan (last november) these routes:

-Yangon-Mandalay

- Mandalay-Thandwe

- Thandwe - Yangon

I didn t choose Air bagan for any special reason (just the tickets the agency offered). For what i read before leaving i ve got the idea all airlines (except Myanmar airways) were the same level safe/reliable.

Flights were all very good, no shaking, (maybe weather helped as it was nice those days, no wind, no rain).

They didn t cancel any flight but you have to call the day before to reconfirm them.

Flights were almost full:

Yangon-Mandalay most locals.

Others: all foreigners, most with organized tours from Germany and Switzerland (if travel agencies use these airlines maybe is a sign they are also safe).

Departure and arrival on time.

You are allowed to carry liquids.

No seat number given.

I m afraid of flying so i was kind of scare but i must said i ve got all good trips.

Hi, I%26#39;m fling to burma either 27th/28th and have bin doing the normal research thing. I%26#39;m placing my bets on yangon airways but if it%26#39;d gonna happen it%26#39;s gonna happen.

I%26#39;m there 10 days doing the big four with a 2 day beach thrown in, what%26#39;s your plans?

eminor, i%26#39;m on a tighter schedule myself. into yangon on 26 for 2 days followed by 2 in bagan and either 2 in mandalay or back to yangon for those last two and then back to bangkok....much less time than I%26#39;d like to have but what can ya do..

I will be in Myanmar for about a week at the beginning of January, too. My itinerary is more like KendoJack%26#39;s.. one day in Yangon, two days in Bagan but three and a half day in Mandalay and its surrounding. Would you mind asking me how you booked the internal flights within Myanmar? Did you use a travel agency? If so, how did you arrange the payment for booking? I had been in talk with a handful of Myanmar/Thailand-based travel agencies and all of them wanted me to wire the money to some private bank accounts in Thailand, which I%26#39;m not sure I would wanna do. So as of right now, I haven%26#39;t booked anything yet.

Thank you.

Heidi

Wiring the deposit or full payment to Bangkok/Singapore is the way they do business in Myanmar as CC are not accepted due to Bush Boycott.

I have been using this method for years with no problem and have just paid for my internal airfares and tour deposit by wire in $ to Singapore last week.

Don%26#39;t worry-just enjoy Burma.

I booked most of them through Air Mandalay%26#39;s website and followed up by phone and email available on their website. I%26#39;ve learned so far that you have to chase %26#39;em down. I also tried making reservation requests through Air Bagan and Yangon Airways, but neither responded to the forms I filled in on their ';E-ticket Online Reservation'; systems...haha...

Anyway, I have most of my flights so far but that segment

air Mandalay cancelled on me from NYU-MDL really messed me up - they%26#39;re checking with Yangon Airways for tickets but it%26#39;s taking a while like everything else.. As I%26#39;m not a seasoned Myanmar visitor, I%26#39;m operating on the premise of keeping as many ';fishing lines'; out there as possible ie. contacting multiple places for seats on the same flights...we%26#39;ll see happens. One other thing I noticed yesterday while surfing - it looks like Air Bagan is no longer insured. One other thing - about 3 weeks ago the Us government put Yangon Airways on its s**tlist as part of an initiative to tighten the stranglehold on %26#39;drug traffickers%26#39;..mmm...interesting ;)

We just got back from our Myanmar trip and flew 6 Air Bagan flights. First 3 no problems 4th flight from Putao cancelled and fortunately rescheduled the next day as it is normally only 2 times per week. We were fortunate to be staying at the amazing Malikha Lodge and and extra day was fine with us. Our 5th fight was from Mandalay to Heho was delayed/cancelled/ no just 4 hour delayed do to a parts problem. We started to get nervous about being able to rely on them to get us to Yangon on our last day from Ngapali for our exit flight so we flew 1 day early back to Yangon which was no problem. If you have timetable deadlines try to leave a day of overlap in Yangon so if you have to change plans in the middle of your trip you won%26#39;t miss your exit flights by relying on any of the internal flights.