6 reviews
Journey December '18 & January '19
While I just returned from Thailand in October '18, it was now time for me to head back to Thailand once again to start one of my bigger journeys of 2018 (a period of four weeks originally, but decided to add another week to it and travel to Singapore). I decided to book plenty of flights to different cities to explore in both Thailand and Myanmar together with my girlfriend.
A small tip regarding to airlines in Myanmar for domestic flights. In case you want to book a flight with them long in advance, expect your itinerary to be changed from what you originally booked it for. Two or three weeks in advance is sufficient as prices will be the exact same as you would have paid for like six months ago and be sure to verify your flight on their site 24 hours for any change.
So the routing below will give you an idea what my upcoming reports are going to be. Enjoy your read!
The start of UB 413's Journey
While we were about to check out from our hotel in Yangon, one of the staff requested whether we needed a taxi to the Airport. By the time we finished our check out, the staff member had already arranged a taxi and it was a quick hop in.
Our taxi driver was a very cheerful chap driving a very very old car with no working air conditioning, which made you feel like you were burning when he was required to stop for a traffic light….. and they could take a while to turn green in Yangon, trust me!
About 40 to 50 minutes later, we arrived at the airport. Unfortunately there is no shortcut to go directly to domestic, so he was required to drive all the way through to International to turn around and drop us off here. The terminal looked fairly new from the outside.
and the great taxi that brought us here! A 40-50 minute ride that costed us only 7.000 MMK (Approx. 4,50 USD).
Upon entering the terminal, you were required to scan your bags prior to entering. We did not need to empty our pockets and continued so. It was kind of chaotic, but somehow sorted in a decent pace.
As most airlines in Myanmar do require you to check in at the airport, we immediately proceeded to check-in, which again was very chaotic as persons from the same group were mixed among other passengers, while they were required to check it all at once, but it didn't take us more than ten minutes to complete or so.
While we received our boarding card, it was now our turn to head up to security to clear.
At security, we did not need to clear our pockets again and were only required to drop off our bags to be scanned. Any electronic device could remain in your bag. While passing the body scanner, every passenger was required to be scanned again by one of the security personnel, which went very quick. I think security did not take more than a minute of two or three.
We were now in the terminal, which offers complimentary wifi for approx. 30 minutes per day and has several options to buy a drink or have some food. We decided to grab a coffee at Tom Tom's.
While there was plenty of seating available, the terminal was not friendly for some aircraft spotting like you could see in the photo below, but you could make up three ATR 72's. Two from Air KBZ and one from Yangon Airways.
Our gate was 25 and was scheduled to serve two flights at the exact same boarding time. UB 413 to Keng Tung via Heho (which was our flight) and UB 281 to Sittwe.
Our flight was however slightly delayed, so boarding did not interfere with the other flights. It however was a gate to board your aircraft by bus.
The bus ride itself was not going to take more than a minute as our aircraft was literally parked in front of us, while a Myanmar National Airlines Boeing 737-800 was being towed to it's neighbouring stand.
While our bus was waiting for the other bus to clear, I quickly took a photograph of the international apron. A Nok Air B738 was about to be pushed back for it's return flight back to Bangkok Don Mueang International Airport.
I love MNA's livery though, so one more shot of that Boeing of theirs. XY-ALF, a 2.9 year-old Boeing 737-800 who has solely been in service for MNA.
And here is our aircraft. XY-AGP, a 10.8 year old Embraer 190 that was firstly introduced to an Australian defunct airline called; Sky Air World. Thereafter it did service for Republic Airways for three years prior to joining Myanmar National Airlines.
While I was one of the lasts to join, the doors were quickly closed to minimize the delay. To my surprise, me and my girlfriend were given an emergency exit with tons of legroom. Though we did not receive any mandatory instructions regarding the emergency exit.
A few more birds to spot from my window view.
And the cabin.
Cabin crew came around to give us a refreshing towel, which promotes their 70th anniversary.
Push back was shortly after initiated and the flight attendants started their safety instructions for today's flight to Heho.
A few minutes later, we were rolling for take off with an early turn towards Heho.
Once at a safe altitude, the flight attendants showed up once again to serve us our complimentary drink and snack.
My girlfriend asked for water, she received 7up. I asked for coffee, received tea.. Something went wrong there!
The beautiful decorated box of snacks was nicely decorated in regards to their 70th anniversary yet again and contained some tasty snacks.
At the time we received our goodies, we were already in cruise towards Heho.
After finishing my snacks, I quickly checked out the literature. Clearly it was not worth for MNA to be spending some pennies for domestic routes as it was little to none.
A safety card
and a single card regarding some in flight shopping, which was still at Volume 1 in 2018.
The flight crew checked in that descent was already initiated towards Heho with a current update of weather and the estimated time of arrival and instructed cabin crew to prepare the cabin for landing, which they did.
Fifteen minutes later or so, we were close to landing. I must say that it was rather a scenic landing.
The landing was decent with hard braking. At the end, we were required to turn around and taxi via the runway to our stand.
Like many other domestic airports in Myanmar, the airport does not have any taxiways and the apron is directly attached to it's runway as you can see in the photo I posted below.
While the arrival time of our flight was about 25 minutes late, deboarding was quickly initiated as the pilots wanted to catch up time with their onward journey towards Keng Tung. Passengers for Keng Tung did not need to deboard, which made deboarding even quicker.
While deboarding happened by stairs, you were required to walk to that green building to pick up your bags with little to no one verifying whether you are really going there.
Upon entering the terminal, you were required to show your passport again to customs. Even though it was a domestic flight, but it seemed to be only related to the Shan State of Myanmar.
And no belt to pick up your luggage?
No worries, they'll just open the door for you and drop the luggage in the hall for you to pick it up.
We collected our bags and were now required to find any means of transport to our hotel at Inle Lake.
After exiting the building, you could walk down all the way to the gates. Over there tons of taxis are waiting for you to bring you to your hotel with the standard overpriced airport taxis.
Check tourism bonus for my inle trip. Definitely the highlight of my trip.
A very pleasant trip I've had with Myanmar National Airlines. Though entertainment is rather low on their short domestic flights, it offers you a comfortable trip from A to B with friendly cabin crew and some comfortable seating for affordable prices.
Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 4 avis concernant 3 compagnies sur la ligne Yangon (RGN) → Heho (HEH).
La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Mann Yadanarpon Airlines avec 7.6/10.
La durée moyenne des vols est de 1 heures et 3 minutes.
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6 Comments
Thanks agin for your persistence in this epic series. It really is inspiring.
Too bad you couldn't walk the short walk over to your ride. But I guess security and all that. But the bus gate did afford you a great look at your ride, in its simple but rather elegant livery.
Woohoo! Free extra legroom!
Interesting service ethic -- you tell us what you want, we'll give you something a similar colour.
That's a respectable service and snack for a flight of less than an hour in Y.
Thanks for sharing this short segment. I look forward to seeing what comes next.
Happy flying!
Myanmar has already a significant amount of tourists visiting them, but I did want to visit them prior to mass tourism. I believe their market offers currently 6 airlines, but they often do visit certain cities like maybe once or twice a week and often several cities are being served with one flight number.
Thanks for sharing! :D
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