Myanmar's Yangon International Airport, which is under extension, would have the capacity of accommodating larger aircraft such as Boeing-747 on completion, said a local press report.

 

So far, 95 percent of the airport extension construction work has been finished, the Khit Myanmar said in its latest issue.

 

The terminal building of the airport is being extended to 240 meters from 102 meters in length and to 60 meters from 42 meters in width, while the runway being extended to 3.36 kilometers from 2.43 kilometers, the private-run Asia World Company, which started the project in September 2002, the Department of Civil Aviation was quoted as saying.

 

The new airport on completion can also handle about 2.7 million passengers a year against the present 500,000, the sources said.

 

The extended airport will deal with international flights, while the existing one be rearranged to handle domestic flights, according to the civil aviation authorities, which also disclosed that a total 13 projects of upgrading existing airports across the country is underway with three more new airports being under construction.

 

To boost its air transport, Myanmar has added seven new airports since 1988, bringing the total number of the infrastructures in the country so far to 28, official statistics show.

 

Meanwhile, upgrading of other aircrafts to raise its domestic transporting capacity is also being made by gradual substitution of the existing Netherland-made Fokker-28 or 27 with France-made ATR aircraft.

 

There has been a number of foreign airlines that fly Yangon including Air China, Thai Airways international, Silk Air ( Singapore), Malaysian Airline System, Biman(Bangladesh), Indian Airlines, Lauda Air (Austria), Phuket Airlines (Thailand), Bangkok Airways and Qatar Airways (Middle East).

 

There are also three Myanmar-foreign joint venture airlines flying international routes, which are the Myanmar Airways International, the United Myanmar Airlines and Air Myanmar.

 

Myanmar domestic airlines are represented by one state-run Myanma Airways and three joint ventures which are Air Mandalay, Yangon Airways and Air Bagan.   

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2006)