Saloni Bhatia – New Delhi
The largest international carrier of Maldives, Mega Maldives Airline has launched non-stop flights between New Delhi and Male, starting November 15, 2016. The flights will run thrice a week with a journey time of three hours and 40 minutes (outbound) and four hours and 20 minutes (inbound). The 737-800 aircraft will be flying on this route with 12 business class and 156 economy class seats. The round trip tickets are fairly priced at Rs 40,000 for business class and Rs 26,800 for economy. The capital-to-capital connect along with non- stop connectivity is expected to increase tourist traffic to both the countries.
The flight will depart from Delhi in the morning and arrive in Maldives just after mid day. George Weinmann, founder and CEO, Mega Maldives Airline said, “The schedule provides significant benefits as the travellers will land in Maldives just after mid-day which shall give them the time to spend the day at leisure. This shall enable the travellers to make the best use of hotel check-times and sea-plane transfers.”
The airline will soon be starting its Mumbai operations with two flights a week and plans to further add domestic connectivity between the two cities, Mumbai and Delhi. The future plan also includes flights between New Delhi and Dhaka.
Talking about the tourism potential of both countries, Ahmed Mohamed, Ambassador of Maldives to India, said, “The flights will increase connectivity between northern India and Maldives. India is an important market for Maldives as it jumped from rank eight to six in 2015 on the inbound tourist arrivals. The first eight months of 2016 has already witnessed an increase of 21.4 per cent Indian tourist arrivals as compared to last year. This flight shall mutually benefit tourism in both the countries.”
The airlines operates in 15 destinations and has over 40 per cent share in the China market.