VIA sets new record; 856 air traffic movements recorded on Saturday

Velana International Airport (VIA) has set a new record in air traffic movements, in the newly commenced year.

Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) under which VIA is operated, revealed that the new record was set on January 7.

As such, statistics revealed that a total of 856 air traffic movements were recorded that day.

This includes 102 international movements, 114 domestic movements, 35 movements of general aviation and 605 movements of seaplanes.

The earlier record in air traffic movements, was set at 839 on 19 February 2022.

As such, 629 seaplane movements and 210 flight movements were recorded on 19 February 2022.

At a time VIA has set a new record this year, the number of private jets arriving in the archipelago nation has also increased significantly during the holiday season.

In 2022, seaplane operators also added seaplanes to their fleet after being moved to the new seaplane terminal.

With this, the frequency of seaplane movements has also been surging.

There has also been a steep increase in the number of tourist arrivals to the Maldives.

As such, in the first week of 2023 alone, Maldives welcomed a total of 42,404 visitors which is a 11.1 percent increase in comparison to the same period of 2022.

As the demand for the island nation increased internationally, several airlines have also converted the aircrafts they used to fly to the Maldives into bigger aircrafts in terms of space.

Some airlines have also increased their flight frequency to the Maldives.

Maldives has been one of the most popular travel destinations in the globe for past last three years.

The Ministry of Tourism noted that many efforts will be made to defend this position this year as well.

It is estimated that 1.9 million tourists will visit the Maldives this year.

Maldives surpassed its tourist arrival target of 1.6 million by the end of 2022.