Direct flight expected to boost Australia arrivals by 11,000 tourists per annum

The direct flights between Male’ and Melbourne launched on Sunday will boost annual arrivals from Australia by 11,000 tourists, estimates the Maldives’ national carrier, Maldivian Airlines.

The weekly flights, launched by Maldivian in partnership with top Australian travel agency Luxury Escapes, marks the first-ever direct flights between Maldives and Australia.

The flights are being operated by Maldivian’s Airbus A330 wide-body aircraft, configured with 18 fully lie-flat business seats and 246 economy seats.

The first flight departed from Male’ to Melbourne on Sunday night. And is set to return from Melbourne to Male’ carrying tourists on Tuesday.

In an appearance on Public Service Media (PSM)’s ‘Raajje Miadhu’ show on Sunday night, the airline’s financial controller, Ahmed Rameez said that there’s huge demand for the Male’-Melbourne route.

He said that the first three flights are fully booked, with half of the seats in all flights until November also booked.

“Our flight is coming fully packed with 264 passengers. The first three flights will carry around 700 passengers [to Male’]. This is therefore a huge achievement. We believe that if we are able to maintain this, we will be carrying around 11,000 tourist arrivals throughout the year,” he said.

Rameez expects the boost in tourist arrivals from Australia will increase resort occupancy rates and also increase tax revenue generated by the state by MVR 10 million per annum.

Flights from Melbourne to the Male’ typically involve an Asian carrier with stopovers in cities such as Singapore, Colombo, Kuala Lumpur or Dubai. Travel times usually range from 15 to 20 hours, though longer journeys are common, with total travel often extending well beyond the hours spent in the air.

But the stopover-free route launched by Maldivian in partnership with Luxury Escapes trims the journey to 11 hours.

The launch of the direct route ahead of summer holidays is expected to boost tourist arrivals from Australia by 17 percent to 40,000 visitors this year.