MAI waits for new A320s
SINGAPORE, 22 October 2010- Myanmar Airways International will add two A320s to its fleet in early November to expand its regional network, airline officials at ITB reported Friday.
The airline currently operates with a single Airbus 320 and cooperates with Singapore-based Jetstar that provides an aircraft and crew in a code-share arrangement on the Yangon-Singapore sector.
The two new aircraft will both have business and economy class cabins and will give the airline a fleet of four leased A320 aircraft.
Cyber attacks shut media sites
BANGKOK, 28 September 2010 – Leading Myanmar exile media organisations said their websites had been crippled by cyber attacks Monday on the third anniversary of a crackdown on the “Saffron Revolution” monk-led protests.
The Internet sites of the Democratic Voice of Burma, the Irrawaddy Magazine and the Mizzima news service were overwhelmed by a flood of incoming messages known as a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.
“All the fingers are pointing at the regime and regime-hired mercenary hackers – these are the people who are behind the attack I’m sure,” Irrawaddy founder and editor, Aung Zaw, told AFP.
Air Bagan plans Phuket service
BANGKOK, 20 September 2010 – An airline in military-ruled Myanmar will launch twice-weekly flights between Yangon and the Thai resort island of Phuket, media reported Sunday.
A spokeswoman for Air Bagan told the privately-owned but state-censored Myanmar Times that the service will begin in early December on Mondays and Fridays, using a Fokker aircraft that seats about 100 passengers.
Mae Sot border remains closed
September 10, 2010 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under News
BANGKOK, 10 September, 2010 – Thailand’s deputy minister of commerce, Alongkorn Ponlaboot, is leading efforts to reopen the Mae Sot-Myawaddy border which has remained closed since 18 July.
Myanmar’s military government closed 20 cross-border checkpoints along the Moei River in protest against the construction of an embankment along the Moei River at Ban Tha At by Thai-based companies that caused soil erosion along the river bank.
Myanmar the missing link in ADB plans
September 2, 2010 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under News
BANGKOK, 2 September, 2010 – The thick forested Dawna mountain range in southeast Burma is a major obstacle blocking Asian Development Bank ambitions to link Burma’s road network with the East-West-Corridor highways that cross central Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.
A detailed report in the online Irrawady states that “the still-to-be-built 40-km stretch across the mountain in military-ruled Burma is a key to making the Asian Development Bank’s East-West Corridor a reality.”
The Manila-based bank has been promoting the 1,450-km long highway claiming it will improve trade and tourism across mainland Southeast Asia. The East-West Corridor, as it is identified in ADB reports, starts in central Vietnam at the country’s coastal port of Danang and crosses Laos to Savanakhet on the banks of the Mekong River.
MYANMAR: Mixed reactions to VoA cancellation
August 26, 2010 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under News
BANGKOK, 26 August 2010 – Myanmar’s decision to suspend its visa-on-arrival facility, 1 September, gained a mixed reaction from travel agents in Bangkok; some claiming it would have no impact and others believing it would slow bookings.
Myanmar’s military leaders announced the suspension late last week, just four months after introducing it for all nationalities.
Thailand is the top supplier of visitors to Myanmar, but agents handling Thai tour groups said suspending the VoA was not an issue as most tour companies arranged visas in advance through the embassy in Bangkok.
Myanmar rescinds VoA
BANGKOK, 24 August 2010 – BARELY four months after introducting a visa on arrival scheme, Myanmar will mothball the service 1 September, until after the 7 November elections.
The country’s military junta is tightening security in preparation for national elections the first in the country for 20 years.
Cancellation of the visa-on-arrival will hit the country’s tourism in the run up to the peak season that gets underway November when the southwest monsoon end.
Burma connection threatens USAID funding
WASHINGTON, 10 August 2010 ― USAID funding for a project that gave ASEAN a tourism website and campaign “Southeast Asia: Feel the Warmth” is under review following criticism that it may have a commercial value for Myanmar and break strict US sanctions.
A source in the US capital confirmed that “a review of the funding is going on to determine whether the project violates Burma sanctions, but a conclusion hasn’t been reached yet.”
Mae Sot trade comes to a standstill
August 2, 2010 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under News
BANGKOK, 2 August 2010 ― Closure of the Thai-Burmese border at Mae Sot has caused a loss of revenue estimated at Bt20 billion, according to Mae Sot Customs House chief, Pimkanchana Lorsiripaiboon.
Myanmar shut the Mae Sot-Myawaddy border checkpoint, 18 July, in protest against the construction of an embankment along the Moei River at Ban Tha At, undertaken by Thailand.
Myanmar’s junta ghas instigated nine separate border closures against this project in the past, but the current one is the longest to date.
Clinton denounces Myanmar’s oppression at Asia meet
HANOI, 23 July 2010 – The United States told an Asian security forum Friday it was “deeply concerned” about oppression in Myanmar, calling for the release of political prisoners and an end to attacks against ethnic minorities.
Speaking at the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Hanoi, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Myanmar’s “restrictive electoral laws” further stifled civilians’ lives and made polls due this year “unlikely” to be free and fair.
