ANA Looks Myanmar Market by Acquiring Local Airline

   

   

from Yomiuri Shimbun, August 27,2013   

            

ANA Holdings, a parent company of All Nippon Airways www.ana.co.jp has decided to buy 49% of equity of a new carrier in Myanmar, called Asian Wings Airways (www.asianwingsair.com).

ANA aims at to capture rapidly-growing passenger traffic in the South East Asian market. This would be the first case of foreign investment to Myanmar’s civil aviation after shifting of administrative authority from the military.

ANA’s equity is estimated JPY3 billion (USD 30 million) and would be paid up until the end of March 2014. Asian Wings, located in Yangon, the largest city of Myanmar, flies to major cities in the country. It was founded in 2011 and plans to fly international routes soon.

Reflecting strong business interest of Japan to Myanmar these days, ANA launched Narita-Yangon flights in last October; it will expand its capacity by changing to larger aircraft while increasing frequency from three flights every week to daily.  With this capital equity acquisition, ANA will be able to use the domestic network of Asian Wings for transfer passengers from Japan.