Maldivian to commence direct flights to Mumbai and Chennai from Nov 2012
SUDIPTA DEV – Mumbai
Maldivian, the national carrier of Maldives, is launching direct flights from Male to Mumbai and Chennai from November 16, 2012. Following this there are plans to initiate Delhi flights from next year. “The airline already operates flights to Trivandrum in India but for more strategic connections for tourism, it is important for us to connect to Mumbai and Delhi,” stated Ahmed Adeeb Abdul Gafoor, minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Maldives. For Mumbai, initially an A320 will be put in operation. There will be three flights per week and later as per demand the number of flights might be increased to daily. “The target is daily flights to Mumbai and Delhi before the end of 2013,” stated Gafoor. Pointing out that the aviation laws in Maldives is very liberal, Gafoor was hopeful that soon private airlines from India will also start connecting the two countries.
Maldivian airline was formed in 2003, initially in the domestic market. “In the international sector we started with Colombo and Trivandrum. Now it has reached a position where we can extend flights to other destinations also. We would like to pave the way for our national airline to be used as a strategic tool so that tourism inflow would come in,” stated Gafoor. He does not believe that the airline has entered the Indian market late, and asserts that the timing is correct. “If you see all our products are designed for Europe which is our traditional market. While it is still our important market, but we believe that Asians have started to travel, China has taken over as the biggest market for us, the Indian market also has a big potential. So we believe that starting of our direct flights is timely. At this moment we are formulating a plan for 2013,” he mentioned. When asked about the load factors and reason for selecting Mumbai and Chennai markets for its services, Abdul Haris, managing director, Maldivian told Express TravelWorld said, “We see a huge revenue opportunity from these two markets and are expecting to increase the number of tourists arrivals to the country by offering direct connectivity. We have received 70 per cent load factor from Thiruvanthapuram market.” Sharaftravel has been appointed as its GSA for the western region in India.
Discussing the nation’s tourism potential Gafoor added, “We have already seen a lot of mid to high income travellers to Maldives. We have a one island-one resort concept and have 105 resorts under operations at the moment, which include mid to high-end properties. There is no paparazzi or intrusion and we get a lot of celebrities from different parts of the world. We would also like to see more Bollywood films coming in, for which we need the right infrastructure in place and at the moment we are developing that,” said Gafoor. Maldives also has sights on the Indian MICE and weddings tourism segment.
(With inputs from Kahini Chakraborty)
