Myanmar airline launches maiden flight to Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): Myanmar Airways International's maiden flight to Jakarta, a Boeing B-757-200ER carrying 105 passengers from Yangon and Singapore, landed yesterday at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

"There were 25 Indonesians originating from Yangon and another 33 Indonesians and 17 Myanmar people from Singapore among the passengers on the inaugural flight to Jakarta," airline chairman Col (ret.) Tun Aung told reporters here yesterday.

"We serve Yangon-Jakarta via Singapore and Jakarta-Yangon, also via Singapore, twice a week. We expect to see up to 50 percent load factors for the route," he said, adding that the flights would arrive in Jakarta every Tuesday and Friday at 1:10 p.m. and leave for Yangon an hour later.

He said he expected businessmen and tourists from Indonesia would use the airline to visit his country.

" I understand that there are a number of businessmen who frequently visit Myanmar for business. (The state-owned oil company) Pertamina and (the publicly-listed cigarette manufacturer) Sampoerna plan to invest in Myanmar," he said.

He said that Sempati Air, a private airline partly owned by Hutomo Mandala Putra, a son of President Soeharto, also planned to fly to Myanmar.

Yangon-Jakarta traveling time is around five hours, including two hours and 40 minutes for the Yangon-Singapore section, one hour and 30 minutes for the Singapore-Jakarta route and one hour transit in Singapore, the airline's operations director Wu Ling Siow said.

The B-757-200ER aircraft operated by the airline, whose symbol is Pyinsa Rupa, became the 38th foreign airlines with regular service to Indonesia.

Several other foreign airlines -- including Northwest and United Airlines of the United States, Lauda Air of Austria, and Canada Air -- are gearing up to open routes into the country.

Indonesia has designated 23 airports as international gateways into the archipelago.

Pyinsa Rupa, which means five physical beauties, is a mythical animal that artists and artisans from Myanmar have been using for centuries as a decorative motif in their works.

Tun Aung said the airline, set up on Feb. 19, 1993, is 51 percent owned by the state-run Myanmar Airways and 49 percent by Highsonic Enterprises of Singapore.

The airline launched its inaugural flight to Singapore on Aug. 15, 1993, with a Boeing B-757-200ER leased from Royal Brunei Airlines. In August 1994, the airline received its first B-737- 400 jet, which now flies to Jakarta via Singapore.

The airline will face keen competition with the leading airlines on the route between Singapore and Jakarta.

According to Tun Aung, Jakarta became MAI's seventh destination in addition to Bangkok in Thailand, Dhaka in Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Kunning in China, and Singapore.

He said the airline operates three B-737-400 aircraft.

"We plan to buy three more B-737-400 aircraft and to serve Calcutta, New Delhi or Madras in India next year," he said.

Indonesia has a close aviation relationship with Myanmar. Seulawah, the first aircraft of the Indonesian flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, flew in January 1949 not over the archipelago, but over Myanmar, because the airplane was chartered by Myanmar's government. Indonesian Airways, as Garuda was then called, was at that time an airline-in-exile and the Indonesian people were still fighting for independence.

Indonesia and Myanmar have also increased commercial and political cooperation in recent years, with several officials and businessmen from each nation exchanging visits.

Myanmar plans to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) together with Laos and Cambodia.

Tun Aung said that Myanmar launched Visit Myanmar Year 1996 last November and expected more Indonesians to visit his country.

"We expect to see 500,000 overseas tourist arrivals this year," he said, adding that 300,000 foreign tourists visited Myanmar in 1995. (icn)