Emirates has held the title of top airline bringing tourists into the Maldives and continues to do so since the beginning of the country’s tourism-revival journey.
Latest statistics publicized by the Ministry of Tourism revealed that the airline had flown 192,074 tourists to the popular island destination between January 1 – November 3.
With 2,280 flight movements in the reporting period, Emirates increased the frequency of flights operating to the island nation in the beginning of the year. Emirates expects the boosted services to meet market demand to the popular holiday destination.
Into the beginning of a snail paced few months of low tourist arrivals since borders were reopened on 15 July 2020, Emirates topped the short list of airlines operating to the Maldives, which has since increased to 38 operational airlines.
A number of international airlines are increasing flight frequency to the island nation, in light of the growing demand of visitors.
While Maldives discontinued issuing on-arrival visas on 27 March 2020, nearly four months later the government reopened borders for international travel, following which Qatar Airways was the first airline to commence flight operations to the island nation. The airline currently ranks second, having brought 170,911 passengers through 1,966 flights.
IndiGo follows closely at third with 1,938 flight movements and 133,239 passengers.
Other airlines operating flights to Maldives include:
- Aeroflot with 800 flight movements and 116,205 passengers,
- Go Air with 1,314 flight movements and 79,375 passengers,
- Fly Dubai with 1,028 flight movements and 54,362 passengers,
- Turkish Airlines with 758 flight movements and 49,505 passengers,
- Etihad Airways with 580 flight movements and 37,651 passengers,
- Lufthansa with 218 flight movements and 22,247passengers,
- Azur Air Russia with 86 flight movements and 21,070 passengers,
- Spice Jet with 448 flight movements and 16,805 passengers,
- Saudi Arabian Airlines with 350 flight movements and 16,506 passengers,
- Sri Lankan Airlines with 1,140 flight movements and 16,412 passengers,
- Condor with 160 flight movements and 16,176 passengers,
- Edelweiss with 132 flight movements and 11,691 passengers,
- Air India with 208 flight movements and 10,765 passengers,
- Gulf Air with 572 flight movements and 9,517 passengers,
- Austrian Airlines with 86 flight movements and 9,195 passengers,
- Singapore Airlines with 378 flight movements and 7,928 passengers,
- British Airways with 134 flight movements and 7,240 passengers,
- Air Seychelles with 106 flight movements and 5,152 passengers,
- Blue Panorama with 36 flight movements and 4,968 passengers,
- Air India Express with 28 flight movements and 2,388 passengers,
- Silk Air with 50 flight movements and 1,264 passengers,
- Neos with eight flight movements and 966 passengers,
- Lot Polish Airlines with eight flight movements and 1,082 passengers,
- Air France with eight flight movements and 425 passengers,
- 380 passengers touched down in Maldives on other airlines.
Since borders were reopened the country’s national airline, Maldivian has carried 7,669 passengers.
Further, Maldives recorded 24,788 out of the total of 1,027,154 visitors recorded thus far this year, having arrived in chartered international flights.
Some of the international airlines operating chartered flights to Maldives include Lot Polish Airlines having carried 117,584 passengers so far, Air Astana with 12,579 passengers and Azur Air Ukraine with 6,626 passengers.
Maldives crossed the one millionth tourist arrival target for the year on October 29. A total of 1,027,154 tourists were welcomed in the Maldives between January 1 – November 3. With this Maldives is inching closer to its tourist arrivals target for the ongoing year, set at 1.3 million.
Maldives is gearing up to mark 50 years since the tourism industry’s inception, in 2022, which is to be celebrated as the golden year of tourism in Maldives.
