Four international flight were operated to the Maldives within the past 24 hours.

Maldives reopened its borders for international travel on July 15, over three months after closing borders on March 27 due to Covid-19 fears.

On an average, three to four international flights are being operated to Maldives on a daily basis since then, with the number of domestic flights within the country sitting between five to six and private jets, at two to three.

The four flights to have operated to Maldives within the past 24 hours include a flight of the country’s national airline, Maldivian, to Dhaka, Bangladesh with 200 passengers, Spice Jet and ones from Malaysia and Qatar Airways.

A total of 475 tourists had arrived in the Maldives on August 17, the same day 533 individuals departed from the island nation including the 200 Bangladeshi nationals who were repatriated.

Six domestic flights were operated within the past day including to Hanimaadhoo island in Haa Dhaal atoll, Kooddoo island in Gaaf Alif atoll, Gan island in Seenu atoll, Fuvahmulah City, Dharavandhoo island in Baa atoll and Manafaru island in Noony atoll.

117 individuals had arrived from domestic airports, on Monday with 90 departing from the domestic airport in the capital city.

On Monday, a private jet departed from Velana International Airport to Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

In addition, a cargo flight from Turkish Airlines had traveled between Maldives and Istanbul.

A total of 17.8 tonnes of cargo were imported to Maldives on scheduled flights and 20 tonnes were exported from the country.

United Arab Emirates remains the top source market for tourist arrivals since border reopening. As such 504 tourists arrived from the middle-eastern nation. UAE is followed by the United Kingdom with 421 arrivals and the United States of America with 336 arrivals. Other top source markets include Spain, 250, Russia, 193, France, 174, Ukraine, 150, Germany, 141 and Italy, 106.

Since border reopening, by the end of July Maldives recorded 1,700 tourist arrivals and the number steadily rose to 5,177 by August 15 with the inclusion of 3,400 arrivals from August 1 – 15.

General Manager of Terminal Operations, Ibrahim Hussain revealed that the numbers are expected to increase once China, India and Russia reopen their borders.