South Korea's Incheon to build new International Airport

[DagonKhan]

It was published in yesterday's NLM in case anyone is interested.

I found this news source on the internet:- http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/international/south-korean-bid-wins/772380.html

They also awarded the tenders for upgrading Yangon and Mandalay. Yangon went to the Pioneer Aerodome Services/China Harbour/CPG Consultant/Malaysia Airport Consultancy Services group. Mandalay went to Mitsubishi/Jalux/SPA group.

[householder]

Maybe it's just the flights I take in and out but I never find YGN airport to be that busy. My recent outbound odyssey had me from downtown to the airport, through check-in and immigration in 50 minutes!!!! Fastest time I've had anywhere in the world. KLIA is an excellent airport so if it's the same group upgrading YGN that can only be a good thing (horrendously ignorant of parties related to airport management and construction).

[SeaVisionBurma]

Can't see the Koreans building a bad airport - Incheon is highly rated by travellers and the aviation industry.

I'm wondering what will happen to the current airport at Mingaladon - will it operate domestic routes only? The new terminal was only opened in 2007 (I think)

As per DK's post, they are going to upgrade it

The other big question is how will they handle the transport into downtown Yangon from Hanthawaddy? It is a fair distance from Yangon.

No feedback has been forthcoming on this yet. If they do it properly then one would imagine a decent new rail link.

I wait in anticipation!

[DagonKhan]

I'm wondering what will happen to the current airport at Mingaladon - will it operate domestic routes only? The new terminal was only opened in 2007 (I think)

As per DK's post, they are going to upgrade it

The other big question is how will they handle the transport into downtown Yangon from Hanthawaddy? It is a fair distance from Yangon.

No feedback has been forthcoming on this yet. If they do it properly then one would imagine a decent new rail link.

I don't quite get it myself. As I understand it they want to upgrade Yangon and Mandalay. Mandalay which was built an an extortionate cost years ago was (and still is) the proverbial white elephant. Massive, with none of the air bridges operating and I would guess currently operates at around 5% capacity! Why that needs an upgrade I have no idea. To be fair, I think these contracts are as much about who is awarded operator status as actual upgrades.

I would agree with householder that Yangon hardly strikes me as being in need of an upgrade, especially as it's running nowhere near capacity. From what I've heard they're worried that Yangon will meet it's maximum capacity before Hanthawaddy is completed, and that there will be a 2 year period during which Yangon will not be able to cope. But then after that it will switch to Hanthawaddy? No idea SVB. From memory, they said something like Hanthawaddy wouldn't be completed until 2017 and Yangon was projected to reach capacity in 2015. They have started building Hanthawaddy though, they started several years ago, there's actually a very clear satellite photo of it on Google Earth in case anyone is interested.

Hanthawaddy itself makes sense in the long run as Yangon really has very little space to expand into. I have no idea about the transport links SVB, but if you check out Google Earth there is an existing rail link, maybe that will be upgraded? I agree that they need something like that as opposed to buses and taxis, it's a fair hike out of the city.