Myanmar carrier leases 10 Boeing planes worth US$960m

Myanmar's national carrier on Tuesday signed a contract with US firm GE Capital to lease 10 Boeing aircraft worth nearly a billion dollars in a major makeover for the largely domestic airline.

US ambassador to Myanmar Derek Mitchell described the agreement as the "largest commercial sale" by a US company to Myanmar in decades.

Under the agreement, state-owned Myanma Airways will lease 10 new Boeing 737 planes from GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), the commercial leasing and financing arm of US giant General Electric.

Delivery of the planes is scheduled to begin in June 2015.

The agreement was signed on the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow, Asia's biggest aerospace and defence show which began Tuesday.

"The contract calls for six Boeing 737-800 models and four Boeing 737-MAX models. The aircraft will deliver through 2020," GECAS said in a statement.

The planes are valued at US$960 million at list prices.

It will be a major makeover for flag carrier Myanma Air, which was established in 1948 and currently operates mostly domestic services using Fokker F28 jets and ATR turboprops.

For flights to smaller domestic airports, Myanma Airways uses Beechcraft and Cessna planes.

"We are pleased at GE to work with Myanma Airways to provide new, state-of-the-art Boeing aircraft," Norman Liu, president and chief executive of GECAS, said in a statement.

"This is an important milestone for the airline and and for the development of Myanmar's aviation industry."

Myanmar Transportation Minister Nyan Htun Aung said the new Boeing planes would be used to expand the carrier's routes to East Japan and South Korea.

The carrier's sole international destination currently is Gaya in India, which is important for Buddhist pilgrims.

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China's MA60 planes in spotlight after safety scares

China's high-flying aviation ambitions suffered a setback on Tuesday as Myanmar grounded several planes made by the Asian powerhouse and Indonesia ordered special checks on its fleet following a series of safety scares.

An MA60 turboprop airliner with 52 people on board crash-landed at an airport in eastern Indonesia on Monday, leaving two passengers with minor injuries and forcing state-owned carrier Merpati to write off the plane.

On the same day an MA60 operated by Myanma Airways and carrying about 60 people skidded off a runway at a domestic airport in southern Myanmar, although nobody was hurt.

It was the second such incident in less than a month involving one of three MA60s owned by Myanma Airways.

"I think the accidents happened because of system failure. We will check all the systems. That's why we stopped the operation of the planes," Tin Naing Tun, director general of Myanmar's Civil Aviation Department, told AFP.

"The systems also showed warnings before," he added.

The Chinese maker of the plane, AVIC Xi'an Aircraft Industry Company, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

China is fighting for a bigger share of the multi-billion dollar global aviation market.

The communist nation is developing the ARJ-21 regional jetliner and the 168-seat C919 plane in the hope of competing with Boeing and Airbus.

Its turboprop-powered airliners have a chequered record. In May 2011 an MA60 operated by Merpati crashed in West Papua province, killing 25 people.

Following that accident, Indonesian authorities banned the plane from landing at three airports with difficult approaches.

After the latest incident on Monday, Indonesia's transport ministry said it would carry out a "special audit" - the term given to checks carried out following serious accidents - on the MA60s.

The process would take up to three months, ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan told AFP.

"We will investigate how maintenance work was carried out, the availability of spare parts, crew training, and all matters related to operations," Ervan said.

Merpati is the only Indonesian carrier which currently uses the Chinese-made planes, with eight in operation and five more undergoing routine maintenance work, according to airline spokesman Herry Saptanto.

"We have no plans to ground our planes because of yesterday's incident," he added.

"Our MA60 aircraft have been certified by Chinese and Indonesian aviation authorities. We will continue to fly them."

Dudi Sudibyo, senior editor at Indonesian aviation magazine Angkasa, noted however that MA60 planes were not certified safe by US or EU aviation authorities.

"Merpati was too hasty in purchasing the aircraft," he told AFP.

Sudibyo said the airline's pilot training, maintenance procedures and stock of spare parts should be investigated. "They should have grounded the MA60 for a week or two while the investigations are ongoing."

Other operators of the plane include Lao Airlines, Philippines' Zest Airways and several Chinese carriers.

Following the 2011 accident, there were calls by Indonesian lawmakers to ban the planes altogether.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered a review into the controversial US$220 million deal to buy the MA60s amid allegations of kickbacks and concerns about the planes' airworthiness.

A special audit carried out after the 2011 accident found the pilot was not familiar with operating the plane, and did not find any problems with the aircraft, according to Ervan.

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Confidence in the airworthiness of the MA-60 is being badly hit when accidents involving it comes so often. Authorities in respective countries should ground all flights while investigations are ongoing. However, such a move will probably bankrupt the airline, thus the continuation to fly while investigations are incomplete are tolerated by the lax in regulations in these countries.

What's worrying is the MA-60 not being certified safe by US or EU aviation authorities. When their standards are not reached, the safety of flight looms a very big question mark over the heads of the airlines operating the aircraft.

Plane overshoots runway in Myanmar, injuring two

A passenger plane carrying 55 people overran the end of the runway at an airport in eastern Myanmar due to suspected brake failure, injuring two people, state media reported on Friday.

The propeller, landing gear and engine of the Chinese-made Xian MA60 turboprop were damaged in the incident, which happened at Monghsat in Shan State on Thursday morning, according to the New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

The flight was operated by state-owned Myanma Airways, according to the report, which said the two injured were sent to hospital, without giving details about their condition.

Concerns about Myanmar's air safety were heightened by an airplane crash-landing in December at Heho airport, also in Shan State, that left two people dead, with foreign tourists fleeing the burning jet.

Myanmar's aviation and tourist industries are struggling to keep up with fast-growing demand as foreign visitors flock to the country, which is emerging from decades of junta rule.

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It is always not easy for a country to enhance its infrastructure overnight. With airlines pouring in to Myanmar currently, it is crucial that the country is able to keep up with the traffic. Thank god for this case there wasn't any casualty.