Myanmar Airlines offering half-price tickets for its citizens to return home

By RASHNIVJEET S.BEDI, Wednesday June 12, 2013  

PETALING JAYA: In the face of growing violence, Myanmar's national airline is offering half-price tickets for Myanmar nationals who wish to return home from Malaysia.

India's The Hindu reported Myanmar Airlines International's marketing manager Aye Mra Thar as saying that the discount would run from June 12 to July 12, exclusively for its citizens working in Malaysia.

The Airlines' office in Kuala Lumpur confirmed there was an on-going promotion for the said dates, which only applied to one-way journeys back to Myanmar.

"We have been instructed by our headquarters in Yangon to give the discount," said an officer who declined to be named.

The officer, however, did not confirm if the discount was being offered due to clashes between Myanmar nationals in Malaysia, which have seen two dead and several others injured.

Seven clashes were reported involving Myanmar nationals in Kuala Lumpur and parts of Selangor between May 30 and June 4.

It was reported that about 1,000 Myanmar nationals were picked up by a Kuala Lumpur police task force last week to avert further clashes between feuding factions.

The violence here has been linked to clashes in Myanmar between Buddhists and Muslim ethnic Rohingyas in the Western Rakhine state.

The Hindu also reported that the Aywyawady Foundation planned to provide free air tickets for 1,000 workers to return home while the Kanbawza Bank would donate money to cover the funeral services of the slain Myanmar labourers in Malaysia.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2013/6/12/nation/20130612123141&sec=nation