Myanmar Airways International

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Myanmar Airways

IATA 8M	ICAO UBA	Callsign UNIONAIR
Founded		1993
Hubs		Yangon International Airport
Fleet size		2
Destinations		4
Headquarters		Yangon, Myanmar
Key people		Gerard de Vaz (Managing Director)
Website: http://www.maiair.com/

Myanmar Airways International is the national airline of Myanmar, offering regularly scheduled international services from Yangon International Airport.

1 History
2 Destinations
3 Fleet
4 See also
5 External links
6 References

[edit] History

An MAI Boeing 737-800 at the Yangon International Airport

The airline began operations in the 1950s when the country was still known as Burma and was called Union of Burma Airways. In the early 1970s it was renamed Burma Airways Corporation and continued services under this name until 1988, when Burma was officially renamed Myanmar and the airline was renamed Myanmar Airways.

Myanmar Airways International (MAI) took off in August 1993, created by a joint venture between Myanma Airways and Singapore interests with the support of Royal Brunei Airlines. It boasted a Singapore management team (many ex-Singapore Airlines staff), new Boeing aircraft, all-expatriate cockpit crews, improved training for flight attendants and new UK Civil Aviation Authority operating standards.

Eventually, the original joint venture was terminated and MAI became a wholly owned Myanmar company. In January 2001, a new joint venture was formed in which Region Air Myanmar (HK) Ltd., took a 49% stake and a local businessman through his company Zan Co. took a 11% share and Myanmar Airways retained 40%.

In 2001 a new corporate identity and aircraft livery was rolled out and the company completed its first major cabin crew upgrade program.

In 2002 the airline obtained new IATA airline designator codes and joined both the IATA Multilateral Interline Traffic Agreement (MITA) and IATA Clearing House. The airline sent 122 employees on training courses at Malaysia Airlines and Royal Brunei Airlines training centers.

In 2003, MAI launched a code-share agreement with Thai Airways International on the Bangkok-Yangon-Bangkok route. The company also has code sharing with Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways and Jetstar Asia Airways.

In 2004 the airline took delivery of new uniforms for ground staff and recruited a further 16 new cabin crew trainees.

Aircraft maintenance is carried out by Orion Air Pte. Ltd., a Singapore aviation company.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Destinations

As of February 2007, the airline offered flights to Bangkok, Seoul and Singapore. In the past it has offered flights to New Delhi, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur.

[edit] Fleet

As of August 2006 the Myanmar Airways International fleet includes ^[1] :

Previously operated:

[edit] See also

Air Bagan - regional and domestic carrier, partly owned by Myanmar Airways International.
Air Mandalay - regional and domestic carrier, partly owned by Myanmar Airways International.
Air Myanmar - proposed international carrier, partly owned by Myanmar Airways International.
Yangon Airways - domestic carrier, partly owned by Myanmar Airways.