Air Yangon, Mandalay or Bagan?
 

Second posting, to the right forum this time. ;)

They seem to have similar flight schedules. If I have a choice, which airline should I pick? Flight delays/cancelations and safety are my primary concerns.

Thanks.

Check to see which if any are run by the government and avoid that one at all costs. See who the parent company is -- Singapore was connected to one of them when I was there I think. There is very little air travel in Burma and none of these airlines have many planes. Biggest reason for delay is weather. Or if there is a mechanical problem they don't have other planes. One thing to be very sure is to avoid the government run airlines.

As far as I know, none of those 3 airlines are government-run and all are pretty competent. The one to avoid is Air Myanmar - not sure if it is government-run but I do know it has a bad track record on safety.

All three of those airlines are privately owned. As Craig points out Air Myanmar is government owned (or co-owned). You may well experience flights being late or cancelled on any of the airlines in Burma. That's just the way travel is in Burma.

We recently used Air Mandalay between Chiang Mai and Rangoon, both flights were fine. Leg room is a bit cramped but the flights were short.

We flew Air Bagan within Burma, two scheduled flights and two chartered flights.. Again they were fine.

As others have said, avoid Air Myanmar!

I looked up the profiles of 3 airlines. Air Mandalay and Yangon are both airlines jointly invested by Myanmar Airway and other investors. So I guess it is hard to totally avoid government interests. Air Mandalay is the one glorialf mentioned. It is backed by Singapore and Malaysian airway. Not sure about Bagan Air.

I will be flying from Bangkok. Myanmar Air has 2 co-coded flights with Thai air per day. As long as I avoid those I should be fine, right?

There is very little air traffic in Burma and also very few planes. Generally there is only a delay if there is a weather problem. However, if there is a mechanical problem the delay can be long because they don't have many back up planes.

ic. That is good to hear. Thank you for the info.