FW I saw this airline when we were waiting at the airport for our flight, seemed like one of the main 3. Don't worry if SM have booked it am sure it's all ok. X

There was an accident involving one of Air KBZ's 3 planes at Thandwe Airport in February this year. I saw the plane on the runway and took a couple of photos as I walking out to board my flight:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/87697758@N07/8033562466/in/set-72157631644858013

It seems that the front landing gear failed to deploy prior to landing. No passengers or crew were injured. Here's a couple of links that may be of interest:

http://avherald.com/h?article=44b25a8c
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20120217-1

"Kanbawza" sounds like an African name!

SM booked our flights on Yangon Air (motto:You're safe with us). But we did see AirKanbawza flights departing from the various airports.

Yes, the airline is a little over a year old. They were flying when we were there last year. The accident was variously reported as the front landing gear failing or pilot error. No one was hurt, but I heard that the pilots and flight attendants fled the plane and the passengers had to take care of themselves.

We flew on Air Bagan our first trip, and second trip flew both Air Yangon (their slogan alone makes me nervous!) and Air Mandalay.

I think the airlines are all pretty much same-same with the exception of Myanma Air, the government domestic airline which is renowned for shoddy maintenance.

Wow--well that's encouraging (not.)

Not sure how much (or even if we have) room we have to change carriers.

You can certainly ask SM if they can get you different flights. The airline I liked best was Air Mandalay. Remember, though, that even if you get booked on a different airline, by the time you get there your flights may be different. Indeed, even if you don't ask to have your flights changed, they will change before you get to Burma. Last trip, I had confirmed my flights two weeks before we left for Burma. Once we go there, only one of the flights was the same.

we flew them for three flights and they were just fine.

It sounds like something from Book of Mormon.

Reading this thread on Lonely Planet it certainly leads one to question this choice of airline for travel within Burma:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=2168310

But, then again, reading articles on the web about the Air Bagan crash at Putao a couple years back (Air Bagan is a very popular choice amongst tourists), this all leads one to question flying most any carrier in Burma.

I don't really read much on these boards about this subject which is somewhat curious--considering how much chatter there has been here about the questionable civil aviation industry in Laos. This seems somewhat similar, unless I'm mistaken. Only difference here is it seems new carriers are popping up all the time now due to the new boon in Burma -- one wonders how much vetting they need to go through to open an airline in the country.

Guess I'll be chewing on Xanax like candy for these flights.

Don't think too much about this. Because of the economic sanctions, the airlines cannot buy new planes (they buy on the secondary market) and they operate outside of the agreed-upon international standards.

What are your other choices? Bus? Train? Car and driver? When compared with road travel, the flights are probably safer.