On February 25 and 26, 2020, China Eastern Airlines resumed Kunming-Yangon and Kunming-Mandalay flight services. This is the first batch of international flights that China Eastern Airlines has resumed after the suspension of international services due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
On February 25, China Eastern Airlines Kunming-Yangon flight MU9749 took off from Kunming Changshui International Airport at 13:45(UTC+8), carrying 122 passengers on the inaugural flight. An hour after take-off, it successfully landed at Myanmar Yangon International Airport. The return flight MU9750 carried nearly 100 passengers back from Myanmar. On February 26, China Eastern Airlines Kunming-Mandalay flight MU2029 took off at 13:50(UTC+8), carrying 145 passengers to Mandalay, Myanmar, with the return flight departing at 15:20(UTC+6.5), bringing passengers back to Kunming.
With the gradual resumption of work and production in various regions, China Eastern Airlines has, after thorough market research, launched customized charter services and resumed the flights of some domestic and international routes. By the end of February, China Eastern Airlines had resumed 1,050 flights and between February 27 to 29, more than 200 flights were resumed daily. It is estimated that 500 flights will take off every day, mainly covering routes from Yunnan, Sichuan, Shanxi to Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Guangdong. In addition, China Eastern Airlines plans to recover more than 2,700 flights before March 28, restoring 100 flights and having 1300 flights take-off daily, accounting for 50% of the original plan. Among them, the first batch of resumed international flights was the Kunming-Yangon-Kunming flight MU9749 / 50 that took-off on February 25 and 29, and the Kunming-Mandalay-Kunming flight MU2029 / 30 that took-off on February 26 and 28.
China and Myanmar have shared a profound friendship. China Eastern Airlines has Yangon, Mandalay, and Naypyidaw as waypoints in Myanmar. It is the Chinese airline with the largest number of waypoints and flights in Myanmar. China Eastern Airline’s Shanghai Pudong-Yangon round-trip flight is operating normally, with multiple flight options daily; its Kunming-Yangon and Kunming-Mandalay direct flights are gradually restoring to 3-4 flights per week.