FMI Air (Yangon) was involved in the ultimately failed joint-venture talks with the AirAsia Group regarding setting up a new low-cost carrier in Myanmar earlier in 2018, the Myanmar Times has revealed.

The South-East Asia low-cost group announced in March 2018 that it had entered into talks with an existing Myanmarese carrier but did not reveal the name of the prospective partner at that time. If successful, the talks would have lead to the establishment of a joint-venture under the AirAsia brand.

The talks ultimately failed due to the opposition from Myanmar's Department of Civil Aviation. Presumably, the government wanted to protect domestic carriers from a new competitor in an already tight market marred by overcapacity and a price war.

AirAsia Group currently includes units in Malaysia, its home market, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Japan, and the Philippines. The holding is also preparing for the launch of its Chinese joint-venture, AirAsia China. It is also in the process of setting up AirAsia Cambodia (2017) and a new Vietnamese unit.

For its part, FMI Air is a full-service Myanmarese carrier offering exclusively domestic flights with two ATR 72-600s and a single business jet, a Challenger 800 (CRJ100).