Sittwe: All flights on the Sittwe - Rangoon route have been postponed since Saturday due to bad weather and heavy rain, said a spokesperson of a travel agent.

"Flights scheduled between Sittwe and Rangoon were postponed from Saturday because an Air Mandalay aircraft could not land at the Sittwe airport due to bad weather and heavy rain. After that, all flights were postponed," he said.

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Air Mandalay has flights to Sittwe from Rangoon every day, while Air Myanmar flies into Sittwe from Rangoon five times a week.

"The flight from Air Mandalay will come to Sittwe next week, but travelers were requested to contact the airline on Tuesday. If the weather improves, the airline will resume its flight to Sittwe from Rangoon," he said.

In Sittwe there has been heavy rain with strong winds, and clouds have blanketed the city after Cyclone Laila passed by the Arakan coast.

An aircraft of the Air India Express crashed on Sunday in south India when it skidded off the runway in heavy rain at Mangalore airport in Karnataka. Just eight of the 166 passengers and crew onboard the Boeing 737-800 flight from Dubai to Mangalore survived the crash.

On 6 June, 2009, Myanma Airways Fokker F-28 crashed when the plane landed at Sittwe airport, causing substantial damage to the plane and injuring three people, including the pilot.