The Department of Civil Aviation has submitted a plan under which private firms would renovate and run regional domestic airports across Myanmar under public-private partnership (PPP) agreements, deputy director general U Ye Htut Aung told The Myanmar Times.
The DCA submitted the plan to the Ministry of Transport and Communications last month for inspection, which in turn will submit the plan to the regional government, he said. “We will call a tender if we get approval,” he said, adding that it was too early to comment on the structure of the planned tender.
Myanmar is busy upgrading existing airports and building new ones. Yangon International Airport’s new T1 terminal opened in March and now hosts a bevy of international carriers. U Ye Htut Aung said Yangon’s new domestic terminal, which will host all domestic airlines, is scheduled to open for its first flight in the last week of November.
The plan to have domestic airports across Myanmar run by foreign firms was first mooted by the previous government. That administration got as far as taking a registration of interest from 46 firms regarding participation in 30 domestic airports back in 2014. But delays meant the plan was never carried out, U Ye Htut Aung said.
He is hoping that the government will call a tender for the PPP initiative.
U Ye Htut Aung previously told The Myanmar Times that several regional airports popular with tourists will be able to handle international flights after their upgrades.
Heho Airport in Shan State, Nyaung-U in Mandalay Region, Thandwe in Rakhine State, and Dawei in Tanintharyi Region are examples of the types of airports that may take on flights from other countries following the upgrades, he said in September.
The upgrade to international airports will be done with technical assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, with some scheduled to be complete by 2018 with the longest-term plans expected to be done by 2028, he said.
Source: The Myanmar Times
