Silk connects to Mandalay

Myanmar’s Ministry of Hotels and Tourism says tourist arrivals to the country’s second largest city increased 12%, January to April, this year.
Tourism Minister Htay Aung told local media that 80,000 tourists visited Mandalay in the first four months of the year, nearly half of all tourist arrivals to the city that were estimated at 200,000 last year.
However, official statistics for tourists passing through Mandalay’s immigration check point, reached 69,596 in 2013, but that does not take into account visitors to Mandalay who enter through Yangon and then take a domestic flight or bus to Mandalay.
“Tourist arrivals will increase more now that Singapore-based SilkAir is flying here,” the minister said.
SilkAir starts nonstop flights to Mandalay, today, 10 June. The route is in line with Myanmar’s open-door policy to expand the economy and more investors, business and leisure visitors are travelling between Myanmar and Singapore.
Mandalay will be the airline’s second destination in Myanmar after Yangon. The new services will use Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft, featuring both business and economy class cabins.
The airline will star with three weekly nonstop services to Mandalay (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday), but the return flight will make a stop in Yangon.
*Operates from 10 June onwards
Bangkok Airways, AirAsia, and Thai Smile all operate flights between Mandalay and Bangkok as well as China Eastern Airlines from Kunming.
Mandalay was the former royal capital of Burma and is the second largest city in the country today standing at at highway crossroads and a major port used for river transport.
Mandalay has 104 hotels with 4459 rooms.
According to official statistics for 2013, there were 709 flights on the Bangkok-Mandalay route with a seat capacity of 117,718 and an average cabin factor of 52.09% on an uplift of 61,323 passengers.
On the Singapore-Yangon route there were 2062 flights in 2013 with a seat capacity of390,809. The average cabin factor was 66.34 based on a passenger uplift of 259,278 passengers.
SilkAir is the first airline to introduce direct flights from Singapore to Mandalay.
Tourist arrivals to Myanmar have spiralled since 2011, slowed only by the shortage of hotel rooms during the peak seasons and a lack of airline seats.
Tourism revenue reached US$940 million last year, creating tens of thousands of jobs in Myanmar

Sourced: ttrweekly