Myanmar's private airline, Air Bagan, will fly China's Kunming in December as its first international flight, the airline announced on Monday.

Using a 97-seat Fokker-100 aircraft, the airline will fly the route Yangon-Mandalay-Kunming-Yangon for thrice a week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the airline's marketing department said.

According to its earlier disclosure, Air Bagan is also planning to stretch its wings to Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia in the early phase of its international flight. Air Bagan, the third largest domestic private airline after Air Mandalay and Yangon Airways, stands as the first full private investment airline in Myanmar owned by the Htoo Company of Myanmar national and inaugurated in November 2004.

The airline has been flying between Yangon and 17 domestic destinations using one 108-seat Fokker-100 aircraft, two France- made 70-seat ATR-72 aircrafts and three 46-seat ATR-42 aircrafts.

Meanwhile, the state-run domestic Myanma Airways revealed that it will offer charter flights from Yangon to South Korea's Inchon and Japan's Osaka starting early November as the first step to pave way for running scheduled flights in the future, using A-310- 222 aircraft of 228 seats.

The Myanma Airways, founded before the Second World War, flew to regional destinations such as Bangkok, Singapore, Jakarta, New Delhi, Calcutta and Dhaka until 1992 when it stopped international flights.

Foreign airlines flying Myanmar have reportedly reached 14, including Thai Airways International, Indian Airlines, Air China and Malaysian Airlines.

(Xinhua News Agency September 25, 2006)