ANA Holdings has confirmed it has dropped plans to establish a new carrier in Myanmar. Unveiled in March 2016, Asian Blue Aviation (Yangon) was a 49/51 joint-venture between the Japanese conglomerate and Myanmar's Golden Sky World.
However, despite having secured approval from the Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC) in May last year, ANA said in a statement on Monday, November 6, that Asian Blue's application to the Myanmar Department of Civil Aviation for an Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) had been denied. No reasons for the rejection were given.
This was ANA's second attempt at entering the Myanmar market. Its first attempt, which involved acquiring a 49% stake in Asian Wings Airways (Yangon), was abandoned in 2014 citing "an increasingly competitive Myanma domestic market."
