The direct flights were to launch on Nov 17, The Myanmar Times reported Varong Israsena, Bangkok Airways Vice President of Sales, as saying in May. (See story here.)
That confirmation followed airline President Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth announcing earlier this year that the services would launch in Q4 2018. (See story here.)
However, it was brought to The Phuket News’ attention today that the Bangkok Airways website is no longer showing the planned flights on the airline’s flight schedule. (See flight schedule here).
“At this moment, we still could not confirm the direct route from RGN – HKT,” The Phuket News was told by online response staff this afternoon.
“If there is the opening of new route, we will surely inform our dear passengers. Please stay with us via Bangkok Airways' Facebook Page for the updates (click here).
“Sorry for your inconvenience, If there is any news about this route we will surely inform on our page immediately,” the staffer added.
In August, the Centre for Aviation (CAPA) reported that despite rapid growth in passenger traffic since the country opened up six years ago, visitor growth had slowed significantly over the past couple of years.
“The average international load factor in Myanmar was only 60% in 2017. The two largest routes, Yangon to Bangkok and Singapore, had load factors of only 65%, while Myanmar’s only two long haul routes, Yangon to Doha and Dubai, had load factors well below 50%,” said the report.
“Myanmar at one point projected that it would attract 7.5 million visitors by 2020. Given the recent growth rates Myanmar will not even reach 2 million visitors in 2020,” the report added. (See report here.)