The airline was founded in 1996 as Yangon Airways and operated under that name until it rebranded as Air Thanlwin in October 2019 .

During the past three years, Yangon Airways has been progressively gaining market share; it has about 37% in 2007 and increased to 41% in 2008.

[5] Under United States federal law, Americans are prohibited from doing business with individuals or entities listed as an SDN.

Yangon Airways was designated by OFAC in 2008 after having been acquired by notorious drug traffickers of the United Wa State Army.

[6] Yangon Airways was rebranded and operated as Air Thanlwin in 2019[7] using the same fleet, adding another ATR 72-500 leased from Myanmar National Airlines.