Malé, Maldives — The flag carrier airline of Sri Lanka, SriLankan Airlines will be operating direct London-Maldives flights starting from December.
While the airline is scheduled to begin their operations on December 12, they will be operating twice a week on Tuesdays and Saturdays. These flights will be taking approximately 10 hours as it the two countries are 8,458 kilometres apart.
The flight will be departing from the major international airport in London, Heathrow airport at 1930 hrs and is expected to arrive to the main international airport of Maldives, Velana International Airport at 1050 hrs. This flight will be returning back from Maldives at 1140 hours and is expected to land in Heathrow at 1800 hrs.
The Sri Lankan airline will be following the same route until April 31 of 2021 along with its Oneworld alliance partner, the British Airways. The British Airways is scheduled to operate direct Heathrow-Male’ flights six times a week.
The second largest UK based carrier, British Airways will be traveling to Maldives-Heathrow on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. It will be departing from Heathrow at 1815 hrs and is expected to arrive to Maldives at 0940 hrs. However, on Saturday, the airline will be departing from Heathrow at 2120 hrs and arriving at 0045 hrs.
As of October 25, tourists traveling from Maldives are allowed to enter the United Kingdom without the need for mandatory isolation. This is why, the number of tourists have consecutively increased. While tourists are also not required to go through mandatory quarantine in Maldives, the number of tourist arrivals have increased by a great extend despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
On July 15, Maldives reopened its international borders as an attempt to recover the economic loss the country has faced. As Maldives solely depends on the tourism sector, the closure of borders had gravely affected the economy of Maldives.
However, as the country has also received got certified as a “Safe Travel” destination which is safe for tourists to travel to in September, the country has started welcoming several tourists into the couontry.
Only a negative PCR test not exceeding 96 hours is necessary to enter Maldives, and travelers of every nationality are offered a free tourist visa of 30 days on arrival. Split stays among exclusive tourist resorts, guesthouses on local islands and safaris are also now permitted in Maldives.
