Rangoon Flights

At the new Mingaladon International Airport, near the cafe, a few computers are available for websurfing and checking your email. Like every where else in Burma, you need someone to guide you to the various websites bypassing the censorship.. and there is always someone sitting nearby who would get your gmail or yahoo or hotmail.. they charge 4 dollars per hour for internet at the airport..

(date written - March 18, 2007)

Booking number: YR9BDE
Flight number: FD 3771

Departure date: April 20, 2007

Departure time: 8:35 a.m.
Arrival time: 10:20 a.m.

Airfare: one-way ticket via Air Asia

Mode of payment: Master Card/Visa Card

Fare price : THB 1.00
Taxes: THB 1,100

Total fare: THB 1,101 (around 30.56 US $ as of March 17, 2007)

Allowed baggage: 15 kilos
Hand carry : 7 kilos

If you are arriving by air to Yangon, you can have your visa waiting for you at the airport, if you make the arrangements before hand. I have done this six times and five times it was done by miss eithwe at travels@myanmar.com.mm it takes her about a week to organize it. and she send the approval by email to you and you can show it to the airlines at the time of departure whether it is singapore or bangkok or taipei or kunming or kolkata..also you dont have to stand in line, once inside immigration, a separate office is set up for visa on arrival and you fill in a form and within minutes they stamp the visa on your passport and you walk past the foreigners standing in line .. to the customs area.
if you have time to get your visa in your home country, well and good. i am almost always on the road or in such remote areas (even a cup of coffee is a luxury).. for me this works out perfectly. 20 for the visa to govt and 25 usd for the service. works out cheaper than the 100 usd my brother paid to get his visa in portland oregon through an agency..

When you fly Bangkok Airways to Rangoon or to any of their other destinations, you can use their Lounge in the International Terminal regardless whether you fly business or economy class with them.

They offer juice, coffee, tea and light breads and snacks. The lounge is very cozy. They also have free internet access, a variety of magazines etc.

When flying to Yangon, consider flying Bangkok Airways. Service is great and the plane is new - an Airbus 320. Flights from Bangkok to Yangon depart daily from Terminal 2 of the Don Muang International Airport.

Bangkok to Yangon PG 701 ETD 1120H ETA 1210H
Yangon to Bangkok PG 702 ETD 1310H ETA 1500H

Booking can be done via their website and they offer promotional rates to other destinations as well.

QATAR airways based in Doha has become the first middle eastern airline to fly to Yangon directly from Doha, thus connecting Yangon to Middle East, Europe and Indian Subcontinent and Africa. When I visited their offices opposite traders hotel, they were offering 600 usd round trip tickets to joburg and capetown from yangon.. not a bad deal..
For me the interest was to fly to Cochin, which I could do via Doha with good connections. The other way to get to Cochin was via singapore.. you choose

Apart from the state owned Myanma Airways, considered the worst airline in the world, there are two other private airlines, yangon airways and air mandalay, both shared by the government with foreign investors. a new airline has joined the increasing tourist trade: Air Bagan which flies not only the usual tourist routes but places only myanma airways used to fly for example pu tao in the kachin state.
they use atr 42 and i saw one fokker 100 with their lotus logo on its tail at yangon airport recently

Air Mandalay is THE airline to get around Burma. The planes and company is run by a Singapore based company and they have a good safety record. That said annoyingly you must re-confirm all flight reservations the day before. Don't forget you might lose your seat. I looked up the flights I wanted beforehand and I had my hotel the MayShan handle picking up the tickets.