MAI flies the route twice weekly on Monday and Friday using an ATR72 with 70 seats.

First reported by NP News based in Yangon, the Mandalay-Chiang Mai route is the first to be added to MAI’s international network in 2025 and the fourth route that the MAI will operate from its Mandalay International Airport hub.

Flight schedule

8M374 departs Mandalay at 1410 and arrives in Chiang Mai at 1600.
8M375 departs Chiang Mai at 1630 and arrives in Mandalay at 1720.

Meanwhile, the airline confirmed it would start a new service on 2 April, from Yangon, Myanmar’s commercial capital, to Danang, a port city in central Vietnam. Flights are scheduled twice weekly on Wednesday and Saturday. The airline will deploy an Embraer EM190 to serve the route. 

Flight schedule

8M454 departs Yangon at 1630 and arrives in Danang at 1900.
8M455 departs Danang at 2000 and arrives in Yangon at 2130.

In addition to MAI’s daily Yangon-Kuala Lumpur trips, the airline will introduce a direct flight from Yangon to Penang, Malaysia, operating every Monday and Thursday, effective 10 April 2025. The airline will deploy an Embraer EM190 for the two-hour flight. The starting roundtrip fare is pegged at USD274.

Flight schedule

8M505 departs Yangon at 1445 and arrives in Penang at 1815.
8M506 departs Penang at 1915 and arrives in Yangon at 1945.

Penang Island is MAI’s second destination in  Malaysia and is famed for its historical and cultural heritage, reflecting colonial heritage in the UNESCO World Heritage-listed George Town. Penang is famous for its street food, art and beaches.

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MAI introduced additional daily flights between its home base, Yangon in Myanmar and Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK), effective 20 January. It raises flights to 35 weekly (five daily using A320s with 180 seats on the route).

Earlier this month, the airline also increased flights between Yangon and Chiang Mai in northern Thailand from three to four weekly, deploying an ATR72 with 68 seats (departing Yangon at 1150 on Tuesday) and an Embraer 190 with 98 seats (departing Yangon at 1230 on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday).

MAI also introduced a fourth weekly flight from Yangon to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, every Monday, effective 15 January 2025. The additional flight departs for Phnom Penh at 1640 and arrives at 1910. The Monday, Wednesday, and Friday flights use an Embraer 190 with 98 seats. The Sunday flight departs an hour earlier at 1540 and uses an ATR72 with 68 seats. 

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MAI will initially offer a twice-weekly direct service between the two Southeast Asian cities on Tuesday and Thursday. The airline conducted a test flight on 3 April this year, but scheduled flights will start on 25 June.

The airline is actively promoting the new service on its Facebook page, offering a one-way fare on the route for USD159. Flight time is one hour and 30 minutes using the two-class Embraer 190 aircraft, which has six business class seats and 100 in economy.

Flights are bookable on Skyscanner, Google Flights and Trip.com, with Skyscanner quoting a round-trip fare of USD308.

Flight 8M470 will depart Yangon at 1700 and arrive in Vientiane at 1900 on Tuesday and Thursday.
Flight 8M471 will depart Vientiane at 2000 and arrive in Yangon at 2100

Meanwhile, Myanmar Airways International confirmed this week that it has concluded 40 codeshare and interline agreements with international airlines serving Southeast Asian cities, such as Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bangkok, and Dubai in the Middle East.

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The submission calls for Italian authorities to investigate Htoo Htwe Tay Za, alias Rachel Tayza, for her alleged “involvement as a shareholder and director of companies that are part of the EU-sanctioned Htoo Group of Companies, and, where appropriate, to freeze her assets and to remove her from Italy.”

The submission alleges that while residing in Italy, Tayza continues to hold shares and act as director of at least seven Htoo Group companies, including ones formed after the military’s coup in February 2021 and those in direct business with the Myanmar army.

It points the finger at the tourism and hospitality company Ayeyarwaddy Resorts and Lodges Company Limited as one of those identified companies. Justice for Myanmar alleges it has build-operate-transfer contracts with the Myanmar army’s EU-sanctioned Office of the Quarter Master General regarding a multipurpose commercial project, including a hotel, luxury residence towers and a shopping mall on 22 acres of land in Yangon. 

The US, UK, Canada, and the EU have extended sanctions against the Htoo Group. On 31 January 2023, the US sanctioned Rachel Tayza for her active role in the Htoo Group of Companies and for being the adult daughter of the Htoo Group chairperson, Tay Za. The EU, USA, UK, and Canada also sanctioned her. Rachel’s brothers, Pye Phyo Tay Za and Htoo Htet Tay Za, are also sanctioned by the USA, UK, and Canada.

In its reasons for sanctions, the EU noted: “Htoo Group of Companies has acted as an intermediary for the provision of military equipment which was used against civilian populations protesting against the 1 February coup, all across the country and in particular in areas with ethnic minorities.”

Justice for Myanmar describes Htoo Group as a “key node in the Myanmar military’s international network of businesses” that provides it with funds through its network of more than 60 businesses in Myanmar and Singapore. 

One of the enterprises, Aureum Palace Hotels and Resorts, operates 11 hotels in Myanmar that are promoted and bookable on various online travel agency websites. International booking websites that accept payments in USD and Euro through credit cards could breach US and EU sanctions.

Another company, Myanmar Treasure Resorts, is under Htoo Hospitality operations, while Htoo Trading closed two airlines, Air Bagan in 2015 and Asian Wings Airlines in 2019. According to a Justice For Myanmar investigation, Rachel Tayza has been residing in Milan, where she recently completed her studies at a fashion school supported by proceeds from the Htoo Group of Companies.

Justice For Myanmar urges the EU to impose sanctions on the whole Htoo Group network of companies and individuals, including Rachel Tayza, as well as all other Myanmar junta cronies and brokers.

Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “Weak sanctions enforcement by Italian authorities has allowed Tayza to do business in Italy that funds an illegal and illegitimate military junta.   

(Source: Justice For Myanmar)

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The new route, Yangon-Chiang Mai, will be served by a 95-seat Embraer E190 (E90) jet aircraft, which will offer three weekly flights on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.

Flight 8M370 will depart Yangon (RGN) at 1215 and arrive in Chiang Mai (CNX) at 1345.
Flight 8M371 will depart Chiang Mai (CNX) at 1445 and arrive in Yangon (RGN) at 1515.

The airline is pitching the introductory one-way fare on the route at USD119.

MAI flies four daily flights on the Yangon-Bangkok (BKK) route and from Mandalay to Bangkok (BKK) daily. It also flies daily from Yangon to Bangkok (DMK).

It will face stiff competition on the Yangon-Chiang Mai route from Myanmar National Airlines (UB), which flies four times weekly using the 70-seat ATR72. Flights are scheduled on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

Flight UB09 departs Yangon at 1720 and arrives in Chiang Mai at 1910.
Flight UB10 departs Chiang Mai at 2015 and arrives in Yangon at 2105.

The average roundtrip fare on UB is USD250, with a low of USD185 in March and rising to around USD223 in April. Travel to Myanmar is restricted. Visa-free travel has been suspended for all foreign visitors, and the only way to enter the country is to join a tour package sold by authorised travel agencies.

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The first edition was hosted in February 2023 and is once more being organised by the Myanmar Tourism Marketing association, supported by sponsors and exhibitors from Myanmar’s tourism industry.

It’s a difficult sell for the tourism association as the country is virtually closed to tourism apart from organised tour groups sanctioned by the military government’s Hotels and Tourism Ministry. 

There will be no shortage of questions for the virtual tourism mart hosts to answer from media and travel companies, with most attendees hoping military rule, now in its third year, will end soon and democracy will be restored. However, UN experts warned recently that the military coup in Myanmar had caused a human rights crisis and was also increasing the climate vulnerability for the people of Myanmar. An estimated 600,00 people have been killed since the 1 February 2021 coup, and around 1 million have been displaced.

 However, the travel mart’s hosts remain optimistic despite current challenges. 
“This year’s Myanmar Tourism Mart is an active expression of that confidence”, said the show organisers in their invite to buyers and media. They affirm that the virtual event will feature exhibiting companies from every travel industry sector, including destinations, airlines, hotels, travel agencies and cruise operators in Myanmar.

Registration for the virtual event is free for buyers, trade visitors and media. Participant buyers must commit to pre-matched appointments with exhibitors.

 For more information visit: http://www.myanmartourismmart.com/

Register Here- https://myanmartourismmart.com/trade-visitor-media-registration/

(Source: MTM)

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A check of Agoda.com, a popular booking website for hotels in Asia, flagged the cancellation of sales. At the same time, Booking.com removed the resort from its selection of properties in southern Myanmar without an explanation. The hotel’s website is still online, but room bookings have been disabled. Its most recent Facebook post on 12 January promoted day trips to the resort island for a “Visa Run”, including a complimentary coffee and a chance to buy booze in the resort’s duty-free shop.

Grand Andaman Hotel is located on Thahtay Kyun Island, Kawthoung (formerly known as Victoria Point), Myanmar. It is part of the Mergui Archipelago in the Andaman Sea, facing Ranong across a narrow 5km strait.

Its original owner was awarded a 45-year exclusive concession of the 1,800-acre island by the Burmese authorities, possibly in the 1990s when the resort traded under the Andaman Club brand.

First reported by the Irrawaddy news channel on 6 February, the online news channel alleged: “The five-star hotel and casino with exclusive rights to a tropical island off the southern tip of mainland Myanmar shut down this month after an arrest warrant was issued in Thailand for (its present) owner, U Kyaw Lwin.” 

The resort owner’s status regarding the arrest warrant could not be verified independently. 

The Grand Andaman Hotel ran a lucrative casino business that attracted Thai and Burmese tycoons, offering gaming rooms, spas, karaoke lounges and beauty salons and employing more than 1,500 Thai and Myanmar nationals. 

Dating back to when it traded under the Andaman Club brand, various Thai airlines ran charters and even scheduled flights to Ranong for Bangkok gamblers who crossed the narrow strait by luxury speed boats to the island resort on the Myanmar side of the border. Visitors to the resort could stay on the island without a Myanmar visa. 

A major expansion kicked off in 2016 with the development of a 205 five-star hotel and even an 18-hole golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus. Other facilities described in the resort’s sale pitch included water sports and scuba diving centre, zoo, fitness centre, discothèque-cum-karaoke club, restaurants, bar lounge, 24-hour café, business centre and duty-free shop. 

According to Wikipedia, the Andaman Club casino and resort was originally owned and operated by the VES Group of Thailand under a long-term concession from the Myanmar government. However, in 2016, operations were transferred to Grand Andaman Travel, which is believed to be owned by the Burmese tycoon Kyaw Lwin.

Google Map

(Source: Irrawaddy plus additional reporting) https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/five-star-casino-resort-on-myanmar-tropical-island-runs-out-of-luck.html

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The daily charter flight VZ8700 departs from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport at 1030 and arrives in Yangon at 1135. The return flight VZ8701 departs Yangon at 1220 and arrives at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport at 1410.

Myanmar National Airlines announced the temporary arrangement on 1 June on its website, saying it involved the airline’s scheduled service from Yangon – Bangkok (UB-019) and Bangkok – Yangon (UB-020), which would be substituted with Thai Vietjet flights VZ-8701 and VZ-8700 respectively from 1 to 20 June. The average flight time from Bangkok to Yangon is 58 minutes for a flight distance of just 611 km using an Airbus A320.

Myanmar National Airlines made its maiden flight in 1948 as UBA – Union of Burma Airways. It was one of the oldest airlines in Asia. In 2014 it rebranded Myanmar National Airlines, first flying domestic services and later opening international flights to capital cities in Southeast Asia to compete with Myanmar Airways International.

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It will also mean that SriLankan passengers can book flights conveniently onward from Bangkok and Singapore to Yangon and Mandalay using MAI services.

In the meantime, MAI has increased services to Singapore from Yangon to 12 weekly flights with one-way fares starting at USD139. The airline added flights on Monday and Wednesday to Singapore, effective 29 May.

MAI will fly to Bangkok DMZ five times weekly on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday starting 15 June. The routes are Yangon – Bangkok DMZ – Mandalay and Mandalay – Bangkok DMZ – Yangon. The airline already flies daily to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Flight 8M362 will depart Mandalay at 1450 and arrive in Bangkok Don Mueang Airport at 1710. The return flight (8M363) departs DMZ at 1810 and arrives in Yangon at 1900.

8M360 departs Yangon at 0940 and arrives in Bangkok Don Mueang Airport at 1130. The return flight 8M361 departs Bangkok DMZ 1220 and arrives in Mandalay at 1340.

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The grant was awarded for the 2022-23 fiscal year and financed at least one event held in March 2023, opened by EU-sanctioned junta minister Kan Zaw.

The ASEAN-Japan Centre has refused to disclose to Justice For Myanmar details of funds provided to the junta, stating that the information is only available to board members. The ASEAN-Japan Centre is an intergovernmental organisation made up of the Japanese government and the governments of each ASEAN member state, including Myanmar.

Justice for Myanmar asserts the capacity-building grant is one of several ASEAN-Japan Centre initiatives with junta ministries, legitimising the junta, encouraging business engagement and building the capacity of junta staff. The centre has an active partnership with the junta’s hotels and tourism ministry, supporting the junta’s attempts to promote tourism, which provides it with legitimacy and a source of foreign revenue.

The ASEAN-Japan Centre is now promoting tourism to Myanmar as part of the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan “friendship and cooperation” and has launched a website in Japanese. In consultation with the junta, the site includes five ideas for Japanese tourists to visit Myanmar, misleading the Japanese public that it is a safe and ethical destination for a holiday.

That comes despite the clear call from the legitimate National Unity Government (NUG) against tourism to Myanmar. In November 2021, Minister of Planning, Finance and Investment Tin Tun Naing told the Straits Times, “The people of Myanmar are being killed, raped, detained and their houses and possessions seized or destroyed. This is not a time for sightseeing”.

Since late 2021, as the junta’s attacks against citizens intensified, the junta tourism ministry organised regular training and seminars supported by the ASEAN-Japan Centre. These involved the participation of junta minister Htay Aung and Japanese ASEAN-Japan Centre senior members, aimed at promoting Japanese travel to Myanmar.

In January 2022, the ASEAN-Japan Centre supported the junta in running a Japanese culinary skills training, opened by Htay Aung and ASEAN-Japan Centre Secretary General Kunihiko Hirabayashi.

In late 2022 and early 2023, Htay Aung opened seminars for service providers of Japanese tourists in Bagan and Kalaw with ASEAN-Japan Centre officials, which were featured in junta propaganda. Myanmar army and police participated in the November 2022 seminar on enhancing the understanding of service providers for Japanese tourists.
See: https://www.mdn.gov.mm/en/moht-union-minister-attends-2nd-hybrid-seminar-enhancing-understanding-service-providers-japanese.

The ASEAN-Japan Centre has also supported the junta in providing Japanese language training for tour guides.

A third junta ministry the ASEAN-Japan Centre works with is commerce, supporting it to promote market access in Japan. Under that programme, a workshop was held in January in Nay Pyi Daw and again touted in junta propaganda. The workshop was opened by the permanent secretary of the junta’s commerce ministry, Min Min, and Yuka Kubota, an ASEAN-Japan Centre senior executive.

The ASEAN-Japan Centre’s actions to include the junta on its council representing Myanmar, to fund junta ministries, to provide capacity building and to promote business links embolden the junta to continue its campaign of terror against the people of Myanmar with total impunity.

Justice For Myanmar “urges the ASEAN-Japan Centre and all other organisations to immediately remove the junta from its council and end all support. 

Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung says: “ASEAN and Japan are now celebrating 50 years of friendship and cooperation. Yet this anniversary has shown that ASEAN and Japan’s friendship in Myanmar is with the illegitimate military junta, not the people being slaughtered in the junta’s relentless attacks. 

“The ASEAN-Japan Centre’s activities with the military junta support its illegal and failed attempt to gain control of Myanmar and embolden its ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“Without an immediate end to ASEAN and Japan’s support for the junta, the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan relations will be forever tarnished with the blood of Myanmar people.”

Yadanar Maung concluded: “It is abhorrent and inexcusable that the ASEAN-Japan Centre is engaging with the Myanmar army and police as tourism ‘service providers’ instead of international criminals carrying out an ongoing campaign of murder and torture.

“The ASEAN-Japan Centre’s unethical conduct in Myanmar, celebrated in junta propaganda, shows clearly how tourism benefits the junta and must not be promoted at this time.”

(Source: Justice For Myanmar)

TTRW emailed the ASEAN-Japan Centre asking for a comment from the centre’s media spokesperson.
Story update 29 May 2023: ASEAN-Japan Centre responds

TOKYO, 29 May 2023: The ASEAN-Japan Centre would like to inform the public that the press release issued by Justice for Myanmar on 26 May 2023, regarding the activities of the ASEAN-Japan Centre contains some factual inaccuracies, including the statement that the Centre provides grants to member states and misinterpretation of our activities. The correct information is as follows:

1. The Centre does not provide grants to member states. It is an international organisation dedicated to promoting trade, investment, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges between ASEAN member states and Japan. Each ASEAN Member State can use 80% of its obligatory contributions for its own promotional activities at its discretion. The projects identified by Justice for Myanmar, except for the “50 Mindful Travel in ASEAN” project, fall under this scheme.
2. “50 Mindful Travel in ASEAN” is a tourism project approved by the Council of Directors of the Centre to promote the ASEAN region as a whole on the occasion of the 50th Year of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation. This project aims to promote tourism in the ASEAN region as a whole and does not specifically aim to promote tourism to Myanmar.

The Centre works for the benefit of the people in ASEAN and Japan. Promoting tourism is one of the pillars of our activities due to the wide-ranging economic benefits that tourism can bring and its contribution to improving the lives of people in the region. In any case, the Secretariat of the Centre maintains a politically neutral stance in all our activities.

Visit the ASEAN-Japan Centre 50th anniversary website
https://aseanjapan50.jp/en/

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