National airline, Maldivian is to cancel scheduled flights to China “due to lack of passengers” following the declaration of a state of emergency in the island nation.’
Citing a source inside Island Aviation Services, which operates the airline, online magazine ‘LX Traveller’ said that passengers from China “has decreased drastically” due to the travel warnings from its government. The source also told the magazine that Island Aviation can “no longer afford to continue flights there with such low passenger count”.
“The decision to cancel the scheduled flights was made and notified to all relevant staff via a memo today,” reported LX Traveller.
However, Island Aviation denied this, with its Head of Administration Nashaath Ali telling RaajjeMV that “not all flights have been cancelled”.
Noting that there are flights scheduled for Thursday as well, Nashaath said that the flights to China decrease around this time every year.
A state of emergency was declared in the Maldives on 5th February, and a number of countries, including China, have issued multiple travel advisories and warnings.
A warning issued by the Chinese government had even called on its residents “to refrain from travelling to the Maldives”.
