Shuffling the flight deck

When you choose to challenge gravity, the decision on who to trust is an important one, and in Myanmar not always one that remains in your hands.

Whatever factors play a part in your decision — service, comfort, safety or ethical concerns — if you are regularly flying with domestic airlines you will likely have at some point found yourself flying with an airline that you had not intended to pass your money over to.

A local operator who wished to remain anonymous described to Mizzima an example of two customers who found themselves changed from an October 2, Air KBZ flight to Heho, to an Air Bagan flight on the same day.

“Less than 72 hours before they were due to fly, the travellers were told their Air KBZ paper ticket would now be valid for check in with the Air Bagan flight,” said the sales manager.

“I don’t have exact statistics but estimate that this happens on average with one flight per booking. I know that my tour consultants are constantly explaining this to agents. I’ve told them to never guarantee a specific airline for clients since it is all subject to change without notice,” they added.

The CAPA — Centre for Aviation, a Sydney based provider of independent aviation market intelligence released a report in November 2013 detailing the existence of this practice.

“The average domestic load factor in recent months is believed to be below 50% even with a high number of cancellations and combinations,” said the report. “Airlines in Myanmar often cancel flights and move passengers to their next flight or to another carrier. On the main routes, competing airlines offer similar schedules, making it easy to consolidate passengers.”

A competing tour operator who wished to remain anonymous explained just why this was an issue for tour operators like theirs.

“Certain companies aren’t permitted for insurance or compliance reasons to use certain airline carriers here in Myanmar. Air Bagan and Yangon Airways are blacklisted because of their ownership and Myanma Airways due to their poor safety record,” said the account manager.

They continued to explain how they understood the process, that he calls ‘regrouping’ to work.

“Each month the domestic carriers seem to confer over who’s got what confirmed reservations. When they issue their flight schedules one month in advance they regroup reservations amongst one another so often flights get cancelled or reservations get moved to other carriers,” said the tour operator.

“The country’s imbedded system of via connections plays a big role in this also. You buy a direct flight to Bagan with Air KBZ but then all of a sudden you’re stopping in Mandalay to drop off or pick up guests from the cancelled Asian Wings flight.”

“Most of the time it’s laughed off and attributed to being ‘part of the experience’ but in the case of my clients, who have legal restrictions on using certain carriers, it means invariably having to break their own policies at one point or another,” they added.

The apparent ad-hoc nature of these changes differs from code sharing; where two or more airlines publish and market a flight as part of a published schedule or wet leasing; where one airline provides an aircraft, complete crew, maintenance, and insurance to operate a route generally for a period of one month to two years.

U Win Swe Tun, director-general of the Directorate of Civil Aviation said he was unfamiliar with the practice.

“We know operators such as Air Mandalay have so few aircraft that they have wet lease agreements with Air KBZ. But I’ve never heard about this short-term leasing,” he said, “the DCA should be notified of such practices.”

When asked about it U Khin Maung Myint, deputy managing director of Air KBZ, played down the effects of regrouping/short-term leasing. “There are many reasons and incentives for this — for the benefit of passengers, for instance to ensure they can make a connecting flight.”

When confronted with the suggestion that tour operators may be specifically choosing Air KBZ flights over blacklisted competitors, U Khin Maung Myint said that the Air KBZ office were aware of the restrictions against other operators but that this had maybe not been communicated properly to those away from the centre.

“Maybe our outstation people are not aware of these things, their primary concern is the passenger,” said U Khin Maung Myint. “We will tell our commercial people not to let this happen in the future.”

This Article first appeared in the October 30, 2014 edition of Mizzima Weekly