Chennai, Sept 28:
Maldives’ national carrier is all set to launch direct flights to Chennai
and Mumbai from November 15.
Maldivian, as the airline is known, will start operations on this route
from the country’s capital Male. The Airbus 320 aircraft will have 14 business
class, 24 premium economy and 114 economy class seats.
Mohamed Maleeh Jamal, Deputy Minister of Tourism, Maldives, said the new
routes in India are mainly targeted at the Indian leisure market and medical
tourism and trading community traffic from the Maldives. Besides, as the
Chennai flight will also connect Dhaka (Male–Chennai – Chennai-Dhaka –
Dhaka-Chennai – Chennai-Male) and there are a lot of people from Bangladesh
working in Maldives, the passenger load in this sector is expected to be over
80 per cent.
“Besides, the growth rate for travellers from India to Maldives increased
by 20 per cent from 25,750 in 2010 to 31,000 in 2011,” he said. The country
hopes to see 2 per cent growth in 2012. The airline currently operates two
daily flights between Male and Thiruvananthapuram, “which is doing well”.
According to the Minister, Maldives is also seeking investments from India in
the areas of hospitality, real estate and various other infrastructure
projects.
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