Burmese Airline Halts Bangkok Flights

[baabaabobo]

From the Bangkok Post:

Rangoon (dpa) - Myanmar Airways International (MAI) has suspended its daily flights to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur due to lack of insurance coverage for the McDonnell-Douglas MD-82 aircraft used on the two routes, MAI announced Friday.

MAI said in a statement that it was forced to suspend its 8M flights after London Market Aviation Insurer gave notice that "this aircraft MD82 A/C PK-LMY which we have been using in service for our Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur sectors is not fully covered for war and allied perils in accordance with AV52E, due to the recent crisis" in Burma.

The Burmese military regime cracked down on peaceful monk-led protests last month, leaving at least ten dead and thousands in prison.

The junta's latest atrocities have outraged world opinion and strengthened calls for more economic sanctions on the country.

MAI said the national airline will have to suspend its flights to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur until the end of the month

"Meanwhile, we are in the process of getting new aircraft replacement for our Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur service sectors," said the MAI statement.

A MAI ticketing agent in Bangkok confirmed that the flights had been suspended but said it was possible to get a code-sharing flight with Thai Airways International (THAI) to Rangoon.

"Our current service to Singapore operating with our code share partner 3K (Jetstar) with Airbus A320 will remain the same," said MAI.

[londonthai]

not war there - but it's good to hear that the commercial companies act on the public opinion. If only the others stopped investing in exploting the cheap mineral resources and labour

[sibeymai]

It does seem to be some form of retaliation by way of sanction.

Does MIA only have MD-82s and do they only fly to KL and BKK ?

[TBWG]

It does seem to be some form of retaliation by way of sanction.

Does MIA only have MD-82s and do they only fly to KL and BKK ?

Hi

Irrespective of how many aircraft types they might have, the same policy terms and conditions would apply to all the aircraft they operated.

All aviation policies have a war and allied perils exclusion clause AV48, this amongst other things excludes strikes, riots and civil commotions.

This coverage can then be bought back via clause AV52 at an additional premium. Now I doubt that the London Insurance market has done this for anything other than commercial reasons. I suspect that the additional premium they are demanding to reinstate the coverage has rather stuck in the throat of the Junta.

So yes it can come back and bite them in the b*m in ways they least expect!

TBWG