Myanmar plans 2nd airport to serve Yangon

[July 02, 2012]  YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Myanmar is seeking local and foreign investors to fund construction of a second airport for the country's largest city Yangon.

The head of the civil aviation department said Monday that the planned Hanthawaddy International Airport will cover an area nine times the size of Yangon International Airport.

Construction work on the airport originally started in 1994 but stopped in 2003. It is about 48 miles (77 kilometers) north of Yangon, near the city of Bago.

Civil aviation director Tin Naing Tun said construction will resume in June 2013 and is scheduled to be completed in 2016.

Tin Naing Tun said that more than 80 percent of the groundwork at the site had been finished.

[Associated Press]

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