PG wings to Mandalay

BANGKOK, 8  January 2013: Bangkok Airways will launch flights to Mandalay,  the  second largest city in Myanmar  by late September.

Scheduled for launch, 26 September, Bangkok Airways will offer four flights a week using an Airbus A319. The flight will depart Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport at 1200 and return from Mandalay at 1410. Flight time is one hour and 50 minutes.


Bangkok Airways will be the second airline to operate flights on the route to Mandalay  following Thai AirAsia which introduced its services last October. The city is a gateway to the ancient herit Bagan and was the last royal capital before  British colonial forces invaded the country in the late 19th century.

Myanmar Airways International was hoping to start a Yangon-Mandalay-Bangkok circular route but failed to gain permission to pick up traffic on the domestic sector.

It is now interested in a point-to-point service Bangkok-Mandalay. It started a domestic service, Yangon-Mandalay, last year and wanted to connect the two services to make them more profitable.
Meanwhile, Thai AirAsia is lifting frequency on the Mandalay route from 11 January from four weekly to daily. The flights depart Don Mueang International Airport at 0910 and return from Mandalay at 1105.

In the Thailand domestic market, Bangkok Airways will resume its Bangkok – Krabi service, 31 March that stopped mid-2008. The carrier will serve the route with two flights daily using an Airbus A320 aircraft departing Bangkok at 0925 and 1720 and departing from Krabi at 1140 and 1940. On the same day it will increase frequency on the Bangkok-Male route from four per week to five.
Late last year, the carrier acquuired two new A320s (one-class configuration) increasing fleet strength to 21 aircraft (eight ATR72, fives A320s and eight A319s).

source: TTR Weekly
http://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2013/01/pg-wings-to-mandalay/