Thomson Airways also to reduce flights to Maldives

Thomson Airways, which carries a large number of tourists to the Maldives from the UK, is contemplating reducing the frequency of flights to Maldives as a result of the high charges imposed by airport operator GMR.

A Senior Official of Voyages Maldives (agent in Maldives for Thomson Airways) said that the fee hike has posed difficulties in sustainable operation of flights to Maldives. They are reconsidering the operation of certain flights to Maldives as a result.

“They have not decided to cease operations just yet. However they say that it is not feasible anymore,” the Official said. “The problem is that charges increase, but there is no improvement in the services.”

The biggest challenge faced by charter operator Thomson is that the operating cost and airport charges are higher than what is covered by the number of passengers.

“Charter flights such as these have no protection. If they wish to travel here, they have to pay the increase in charges,” the Official said.

During high season, Thomson operates two flights weekly to the Maldives.

The Official said that Thomson’s reason for not reducing flight operations to Maldives immediately is because they cannot cancel bookings made in advance.

“The seats are sold in advance to tour operators. So they are forced to operate flights even though they know they will incur losses. Charter flights are operated under a contract for a certain period. The risk of filling all the seats is very low. They don’t have a choice but to operate even though charges are increased,” the Official said.

Thomson is one of the oldest charter flight operators to the Maldives. The Official said that with the fee hike, cost of operating flights to Maldives when compared with competitors have become extremely high.

“Our biggest threat is that costs of competitors such as Sri Lanka are lower. This will result in a reduction of the number of tourists coming here, making it harder to fill up the seats of charter flights,” the Official said.

Subsequent to the fee hike at Ibrahim Nasir International Airport by GMR, Qatar Airways has expressed concern over having to stop operation of flights to Maldives. Sri Lankan Airlines has also said that direct flights from Male’ to Europe may be discontinued.