Air KBZ (Yangon) is to launch the first international service to the Indian city of Imphal, capital city of the state of Manipur, with a 2x weekly service from Mandalay International.
When speaking to The Assam Tribune, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh has said that the Imphal-Mandalay flight will commence from November 23, however, when consulting the airline's website, the flights are currently not on sale yet.
Transport Director Mercina R Panmei said at the launch of the service: “The commencement of Imphal-Mandalay flight service will take us closer to our goal of making Manipur a major hub for travelling to South-East Asian countries."
“Manipur is central to the future of India’s Act East Policy and the proposed flight service could become one of the major drivers for mainstreaming northeastern India in the Act East Policy of the country with Manipur as the gateway to South-East Asian region,” he said.
According to the ch-aviation schedules module, Imphal currently boasts connections to 13 domestic non-stop and multi-stop destinations only.
Air KBZ is the fourth largest carrier in Mandalay, behind Myanmar National Airlines (UB, Yangon), Qingdao Airlines (QW, Qingdao Jiaodong) and China Eastern Airlines (MU, Shanghai Hongqiao) in terms of weekly capacity, but the second-largest airline in terms of weekly frequencies. Its network of services from Mandalay is currently all domestic, with a 22x weekly service to Yangon being its largest sector in terms of capacity.
