ANA ready to serve Yangon

BANGKOK, 24 July 2012: All Nippon Airways will resume flights to Myanmar for the first time in 12 years with an all-business class service between Tokyo and Yangon starting 15 October.

The service will tap a demand from business travellers for a direct service as they pursue industrial projects and do market research in Myanmar.

The airline will operate the Yangon service initially with three weekly flights on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday using a Boeing 767-700ER configured as a single business class cabin (38 seats).

The flight will depart Tokyo’s Narita Airport at 1100 and arrive in Yangon at 1705. The return flight departs at 2200 and lands in Tokyo at 0640. During 15 to 27 October, it will depart Narita at 1030 and return at 2130.

The service will be suspended during 5 to 28 January for aircraft maintenance.

In addition, ANA says that in its winter schedule, beginning 28 October, it will kick off a daily service between Tokyo and Delhi using a B767-300ER (35 business class seats and 167 economy class seats).

It will be the first nonstop service between Japan and India.

Other airlines that previously announced a resumption or a new entrance of flights to Myanmar comprise of Korean Air (13 September); Qatar Airways (3 October); EVA Air (9 October) and Condor Flugdienst (7 November).

Until these services were  introduced, travellers needed to fly to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok to connect with flights to Myanmar. The launch of services direct from the North Asia and the Middle East will reduce bookings on airlines such as Bangkok Airways, Thai Airways International that serve Yangon out of Bangkok and could rely on substantial connecting business from their networks or partner airlines in the past.