Mawlamyine Airport (formerly Moulmein Airport) is an airport in

Mawlamyine Mawlamyine (also spelled Mawlamyaing; , ; ; , ), formerly Moulmein, is the fourth-largest city in Myanmar (Burma), ''World Gazetteer'' southeast of Yangon and south of Thaton, at the mouth of Thanlwin (Salween) River. Mawlamyine was an ancient ...

(Moulmein),

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

History

Mawlamyine (Moulmein) Airport was initially established in 1941. During World War II, it was a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

field. It was used not only by the British but also by the

Flying Tigers The First American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Republic of China Air Force, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was formed to help oppose the Japanese invasion of China. Operating in 1941–1942, it was composed of pilots from the United States Ar ...

, an American volunteer pilot group then. On 20 January 1942, as a major air operation in Southeast Asia, the 62nd

Sentai In Japanese language, Japanese, is a military unit and may be literally translated as "wikt:squadron, squadron", "task force", "Division (naval), division (of ships)", "group (air force unit), group" or "wing (air force unit), wing". The ter ...

Heavy Bombers escorted by the 50th Sentai of

Imperial Japanese Army Air Service The Imperial Japanese Army Air Service (IJAAS) or Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF; ) was the Military aviation, aviation force of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). Its primary mission was to provide tactical close air support for ground ...

attacked the airfield and its satellite at Mudon with a total of 65 planes. On 28 February 1942, Japanese General Obata visited the airfield and it was reconstructed with 450 Japanese construction crews to be used as Air Force headquarters for attacking British airfield at Mingaladon. After Burma's independence in 1948, the Union of Burma Airways (UBA) was founded and started its domestic services to local airports including Mawlamyine (Moulmein) Airport. On 14 March 1949, a De Havilland DH.104 Dove 1 of the Union of Burma Airways, registration XY-ABO, crashed in Gulf of Mottama (Martaban) en route from

Mingaladon Airport Yangon International Airport ( ) is the primary and busiest international airport of Myanmar. The airport is located in Mingaladon township, north of central Yangon. Many domestic Myanmar carriers and international airlines operate at Yangon ...

to Mawlamyine (Moulmein) Airport. Nine passengers and two crew (Captain P.H. Sparrow, pilot, and L.A. Stephens, radio officer) were lost. It was probably the first ever civilian plane crash in Burma's aviation history. In September 2013,

Nok Air Nok Airlines plc, trading as Nok Air (; , from [] meaning 'bird') is a low-cost airline in Thailand operating mostly domestic services from Bangkok's Don Mueang International Airport. History Nok Air was established in February 2004 as Sky A ...

Mini started flights between the Thai border town

Mae Sot Mae Sot (; , ; , ; , ) is a city in western Thailand that shares a border with Myanmar to the west. It is notable as a trade hub and for its substantial population of Burmese migrants and refugees. The city is part of Tak Province, 87 km fr ...

and Mawlamyine. This was the first time the airport handled international flights after 1948. However, Nok Air Mini stopped its service due to the poor condition of the runway and facilities.

Modernisation

The Mawlamyine Airport's runway is being upgraded in the 2018 budget year. A total of MMK 114 million will be spent to upgrade the runway.

Airlines and destinations

In popular culture

Mawlamyine Airport was the location for a famous 1977 Burmese epic romance film '' Tein Oo Lay Pyay Maung Ko Say'' ( Burmese: တိမ်ဦးလေပြေမောင့်ကိုစေ), starring

Win Oo Win Oo (; , 13 March 1935 – 14 December 1988) was a two-time Myanmar Motion Picture Academy Awards winning Burmese actor, singer, director, writer and publisher. He became publicly known for his acting, singing and directing. Win was consid ...

and

Khin Yu May Khin Yu May (, ; 23 March 1937 – 23 January 2014) was a two-time Myanmar Academy Award winning actress and singer. Biography She was born on 23 March 1937 in Yangon, Myanmar, daughter of U Yu Swan and Daw Kyin Myaing. Her sister, Khin Yu Swe ...

External links

Mawlamyine Airport

References

Airports in Myanmar Mawlamyine {{Myanmar-airport-stub