SYDNEY (AFP) – Australian budget airline Jetstar defended its flights into Myanmar on Monday after rights campaigners said the service was helping prop up the country's military regime.
 AFP/File – A plane from Qantas airline budget carrier Jetstar at Sydney Airport. The Australian budget airline has … |
Singapore-registered Jetstar Asia, a Jetstar affiliate, was one of eight companies named by Burma Campaign Australia -- which uses Myanmar's old name -- as directly or indirectly backing the junta to the tune of up to 2.8 billion US dollars in revenue.
"Jetstar believes the provision of viable air links for the people of Myanmar and the carrier's humanitarian contributions, including the assistance with flights for charitable organisations... have been a positive for the people of Myanmar," it said in a statement.
"While Jetstar Asia is obliged to meet normal aviation and airport charges in every country it operates in, it does not make payments to officials of the government of Myanmar, and has not," it added.
Zetty Brake, a spokeswoman for the Burma Campaign Australia, said every time the airline landed in the country it would be paying taxes which make their way back to the military regime.
Brake said most Myanmar residents would be unable to afford the flights.
"The people that are using these services from Burma are people with links to the regime," she told AFP.
Trade unions chief Sharan Burrow said all eight companies named by the campaign were contributing to the junta.
"The people there are subjected to the worst abuses of human rights and of course lack democracy," Burrow, president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), told reporters.
"We say to those companies, cancel your operations. It will have a real impact."
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