Male’, Maldives – One of the largest air carriers of Russia, Rossiya Airlines has finalized to begin their operations to Maldives from November 14 onward.
The Maldives Airports Company (MACL) tweeted to reveal that the Russian airline, Rossiya Airlines will be directly traveling from Moscow to the Velana International Airport (VIA) of Maldives starting from November 14.
According to MACL, the Rossiya Airlines will be using their B747-400 aircraft for Maldives operations. The airline will be operating to Maldives once a week till next years 27th March. MACL informed that the Rossiya Airlines will operate only on Saturdays.
In addition to this, the Russian flag carrier, Aeroflot has announced that they will be increasing their flight frequency to Maldives starting from November 21. According to Aerolot, they will be operating eight flights per week to Maldives rather than only four flights.
While Maldives welcomed over 74,000 Russian tourists in 2020, Maldives hopes to bring as much tourists with the increasing flights despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Russia already includes in the top 10 countries in terms of tourist arrivals in Maldives.
On November 06, the Tourism Ministry of Maldives revealed that additional 11 airlines will be resuming their operations to the Maldives before the end of 2020. They are:
- Ukraine International Airlines
- Nordwind Airlines
- Azur Air Russia
- Air Asia
- Air Seychelles
- Alitalia
- Air France
- Azur Air Ukraine
- Korean Air
- Neos Spa
- Guld Air
The Tourism Ministry mentioned that since the international borders reopened on July 15, a total of 15 airlines have resumed their operation to the Maldives. Some of these airlines include of the British Airways, Qatar Airways, Emirates, Air India and Turkish Airlines.
Maldives closed its international borders on March to contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus. However, as the country solely depends on its tourism sector, the country reopened their borders as soon as the number of confirmed cases started to decrease in the country.
Maldives reopened their borders after almost three months of closure on July 15. Since then, the country has welcomed over 40,000 tourists to the country.
