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Mandalay International Airport

Mandalay International Airport
မန္တလေး အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ လေဆိပ်
Mandalay Airport.JPG
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar
Operator Mitsubishi Corporation, JALUX Inc., SPA Project Management Ltd. (for 30 years bid)
Serves Mandalay
Location Tada-U
Mandalay Region, Myanmar
Elevation AMSL 91 m / 299 ft
Coordinates 21°42′08″N 095°58′41″E / 21.70222°N 95.97806°E / 21.70222; 95.97806Coordinates: 21°42′08″N 095°58′41″E / 21.70222°N 95.97806°E / 21.70222; 95.97806
Map
MDL is located in Myanmar
MDL
MDL
Location of airport in Burma
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
17/35 4,268 Concrete
Statistics (2012)
Domestic Passengers 500,000
International Passengers 80,000
Capacity 3 million passengers per year
Domestic Passengers 500,000
International Passengers 80,000
Capacity 3 million passengers per year

Mandalay International Airport (Burmese: မန္တလေး အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာ လေဆိပ်; (IATA: MDLICAO: VYMD)), located 35 km south of Mandalay in Tada-U, is one of only three international airports in Myanmar. Completed in 1999, the airport was the largest and most modern airport in the country until the modernization of Yangon International Airport in 2008, the airport connects 11 domestic and four international destinations, complete with a 4267 meter runway which is the longest runway in use in Southeast Asia and capacity to handle up to 3 million passengers a year. It is the main operating base of Golden Myanmar Airlines.

The Mandalay International Airport project was first conceived by the Burmese military government in the mid 1990s as a way to increase overall levels of foreign investment and tourism in Myanmar. With Yangon boasting the only other international airport for the whole country, the new Mandalay airport was regarded as crucial in achieving a planned 10% annual passenger growth. The hope was for Mandalay to become a hub for flights to other major Asian cities, in particular Beijing, Hanoi, Bangkok, Calcutta and Dhaka.

Construction of the airport began in 1996, and the airport was officially opened in September 2000 at a cost of US$150 million. The project was financed through a long-term loan from the Thai ExIm Bank.

The largest and most modern international airport in Myanmar hasn't met the high expectations in the past; instead it has come to represent the military junta's money-wasting white elephant projects.


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Wikipedia

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