Myanmar airline market Part 3: A steep slowdown in international growth. Has the bubble burst?

Growth in Myanmar's international market is starting to slow significantly and will likely end 2015 in the single digits, ending a streak of five consecutive years of at least 20% growth. Not a single foreign airline has launched services to Myanmar over the last 18 months and several of the 22 foreign carriers currently serving the market have cut capacity in recent months.

Myanmar's two main international carriers have also reduced capacity. But several domestic carriers are planning to launch international services, which could lead to overcapacity on several routes as the growth in demand has started to slow significantly.

This is Part 3 in a series of reports on the Myanmar aviation market. Part 1 looked at the highly competitive domestic airline sector, where there are now 10 competitors, following the launch of APEX Airlines and FMI Air and the resumption of operations at Air Mandalay. Part 2 analysed the international expansion plans of the recently rebranded Myanmar National Airlines, which is the leading domestic carrier and plans to re-launch international flights in Aug-2015 after a 22 year hiatus.