Mandalay International Airport

Mandalay International Airport, located 35 km south of Mandalay in Tada-U, is one of only three international airports in Myanmar. Completed in 1999, the airport was the largest and most modern airport in the country until the modernization of Yangon International Airport in 2008, the airport connects 11 domestic and four international destinations, complete with a 4267 meter runway which is the longest runway in use in Southeast Asia and capacity to handle up to 3 million passengers a year. It is the main operating base of Golden Myanmar Airlines.HistoryThe Mandalay International Airport project was first conceived by the Burmese military government in the mid 1990s as a way to increase overall levels of foreign investment and tourism in Myanmar. With Yangon boasting the only other international airport for the whole country, the new Mandalay airport was regarded as crucial in achieving a planned 10% annual passenger growth. The hope was for Mandalay to become a hub for flights to other major Asian cities, in particular Beijing, Hanoi, Bangkok, Calcutta and Dhaka.Construction of the airport began in 1996, and the airport was officially opened in September 2000 at a cost of US$150 million. The project was financed through a long-term loan from the Thai ExIm Bank.The largest and most modern international airport in Myanmar hasn't met the high expectations in the past; instead it has come to represent the military junta's money-wasting white elephant projects.