MIAT Mongolian Airlines Plans To Fly To United States

Well, this is an interesting one but I like it on a couple of levels. First off, Mongolia seems keen on developing closer relations with the USA and this is a definite step in that direction. San Francisco seems to be a smart place to start due to it's location, market size/ethnic makeup, and connectivity to the rest of the USA. SEA may be a little more direct to the rest of the country, but it isn't as large and influential of a market as the Bay Area.

And, I agree with Ben that this would likely be a sub-daily service. Like 2 or 3 times per week. It literally couldn't be daily using one aircraft and using more than that would be too much of a committment to one route. I'd like this to work for MIAT and wish them the best of luck with it.

Interesting, because I would say about a quarter of the Uber drivers I encounter in San Francisco are Mongolian, so there seems to be a population here. Also, maybe they can also fill some seats with spillover demand to China? Though ULB seems to be a bit of backtracking to Beijing (and as of right now, they don't seem to serve many other cities in China).

Would they have to avoid Russian airspace for this route?

Prospective One World member?

The fact that they would need to go through Russian airspace might be a competitive advantage for them. There's no US airlines to complain about fairness because none operate this route, so they could become an efficient connecting hub into China, SE Asia and India.

Air India flights to SFO still fly over Russia so I don't see why MIAT couldn't.

I like the idea of this flight. I have wanted to go to Mongolia because it fascinates me. I just wish it was UBN-LAX instead.

Hey Lucky/Ben, any word on them joining OneWorld yet? Even as a OW Connect member? I feel like we heard about RwandAir and MIAT Mongolian joining as OW Connect members awhile back and then radio silence. Glad to see that Oman Air joining OneWorld seems to at least be moving along though!

As ethnic Mongolian living in USA I am happy to hear the MIAT is about to have direct USA flight to SFO. Even though the route will be hard to maintain with people who is heading to Mongolia outside of the summer peak season, I hope the cargo will be support at least meantime they got some connections figured out through Ulaanbaatar to China or other neighbors. Wishing them good luck to keep this route open in the future.

There was chatter about them looking to ONEWORLD but what exactly they bring to the table is maginal. Mongolia is very isolated and has a small population for starters. Even if they start service to the US at best it would be 2-3 times weekly. When established carriers such as THAI, Malaysia and others couldn't succeed on such routes not sure what MIAT is thinking?

This won't make Mongolia a tourist hotspot overnight, but it's a good first steppe.

Lololol

Let’s compare MIAT and Uzbekistan Airways, the latter which flies to NY JFK and seem to make it work but they have a lot of south Asian connecting traffic due to lower fares and they have a far bigger route network and flies to a lot of neighboring countries, Central Asia and the sub continent. MIAT really flies to prestige routes in Asia which are heavily connected directly or indirectly to North America with the help of the biggest Asian carriers with their multiple daily flights out of SFO, LAX, and SEA.
Most of their destinations are internal Mongolia so it’s puzzling they’ll pull that many people into the country without greater connecting itinerary.
What I think is the government wants a connection to the US and will subsidize this route even if raw numbers are small. They can load it with Cargo and it would work. Ores, precious stones, metals, wool, and cashmere, etc flying within Russian airspace from Central Asia. No other passenger airline is doing that at the moment to the US West Coast.

For instance, Turkmenistan Airways flies daily 777-200 LR to Heathrow brining in a ton flowers everyday with an almost empty aircraft.

One huge issue is that the airline lacks partners and lacks a network. If they had a relatively big network in Asia from their hub city, this may change it. Further, many airlines in Asia have flights to the US, that are not part of a major group or do not have many partners but the high price is a huge factor. The airline could see traffic from northern parts of China if they do it well. Let's see how this plays out.

Correct, only US carriers are avoiding it. Some of the non-US carriers do avoid it and some just have some flights that avoid it while not others.

Hey Ben, have you seen this NYT article? Very interesting to see how Mongolia is trying to position itself with Millennials and influencers. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/13/travel/mongolia-millennials-road-trip.html

I believe that the can fly over Russian airspace, this could be an opportunity.

Mongolia is such a unique country and culture that’d offer an eye opening experience to the Americans. There are many commonalities between the two counties such as cowboy culture and horse racing. Mongolia is also a resource rich country from minerals to cashmere. American businesses can also benefit from cheaper Mongolian labor. A direct flight would open up huge business opportunity for both parties. Lastly, this would make it easier for the Mongolian Americans to visit their families and hopefully cheaper.

It is not backtracking if MIAT can use Russian airspace

We are excited for this flight from San Francisco to UB to happen hopefully this year as it has been 5 years since we have seen our son and grandchildren and daughter in law. This one stop hop over to UB will be great!