Myanmar’s political troubles hurting airlines, tourism

By DPA

Bangkok : Economic sanctions and flagging tourism forced an end to some operations of an airline owned by a tycoon connected to Myanmar’s military junta, a letter circulated Friday said.


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Air Bagan Limited said it would suspend flights between Myanmar and Singapore because of sanctions imposed against company owner Tay Za, a business partner of junta strongman General Than Shwe.

“This has indeed caused us a lot of pain and anguish, as with these sanctions we now have no access to aircraft spare parts,” Gopi Bala, senior sales and marketing manager, said in a letter to clients Thursday.

“The final blow has come today when we were informed by our banks in Singapore that they will no longer deal with us for the time being. As such, we are now facing some major obstacles that need to be dealt with in the next few months,” he said.

Mizzima News, an agency run by Burmese journalists in exile, identified Tay Za as Than Shwe’s son-in-law and business partner, with extensive holdings in logging, aviation, real estate, tourism and precious gems.

The US government imposed new sanctions on the junta this month following the bloody crackdown on Buddhist monks-led street protests on Sep 26. The Treasury Department also singled out Tay Za and his immediate family for sanctions last week.

Other airlines have been forced to scale back service due to the political unrest and falloff in tourism since the unrest in Yangon.

National airline Myanmar Airways International said it will be forced to suspend its daily flights to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur at the end of this month due to lack of insurance coverage “for war and allied perils” on its aircraft.

Thai AirAsia announced earlier this month that it would cut its flights between Bangkok and Yangon from seven to three a week, due to a 50 percent drop in bookings, the company announced earlier this month.

Tourism operators in Myanmar have reported a sharp drop in business, and many hotels have slashed room rates and begun laying off staff members.

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