High airfares leave low-income families stranded in blockaded Sittwe

By Admin 25 Oct 2026

DMG Newsroom

25 October 2026, Sittwe

With the military junta enforcing a blockade on all land and water routes into Sittwe, residents seeking to flee intensifying urban combat have been left relying on commercial air travel to leave the city.

Airfares for flights from Sittwe to Yangon reportedly range from K500,000 to K600,000 per ticket, leaving working-class families with multiple dependents unable to afford relocation.

“Flight ticket prices themselves remain at standard rates, but for a family of five or six, total travel expenses reach around K4 million,” a female resident of Sittwe said. “Affluent families can manage easily, but low-income households lacking financial resources face insurmountable hurdles trying to leave the city.”

The junta’s road and waterway blockades have halted commercial commodity flows into Sittwe, causing food prices and the cost of basic necessities to soar.

Consequently, working-class residents face a double hardship, struggling to secure daily meals while confronting the high travel costs required to move their families to safety.

While wealthy families are leaving by air, low-income households and internally displaced persons (IDPs) remain trapped inside the blockaded city.

With frontline fighting drawing closer to the city’s outskirts, residents who remain in Sittwe live in constant fear as heavy artillery shells frequently land inside the city and the junta carries out airstrikes.

“Artillery fire can be heard continuously,” a male resident of Sittwe said. “Heavy shells have landed in urban neighborhoods on numerous occasions. Now that they have even started launching aerial bombardments inside the city, the situation is extremely terrifying. We desperately want to flee out of fear, but for day laborers living hand-to-mouth, leaving is simply impossible.”

Heavy fighting is currently raging between the military junta and the Arakan Army (AA) at three main positions near the Regional Operations Command (ROC) headquarters in Sittwe, with both sides deploying ground reinforcements, artillery and reconnaissance drones, alongside the use of air support.

On the morning of October 23, the military junta reportedly dropped bombs on downtown Sittwe, causing civilian deaths and injuries.