New seaplane to Maldivian fleet

A seaplane has been brought in for the seaplane fleet of the national airline, Maldivian.

Maldivian had ten seaplanes in their fleet where two of them was on short term rent and was sent back before another plane was brought in last February raising the number of seaplanes to nine.

The number of seaplanes in the Maldivian fleet went back to ten tonight when the new Twin Otter seaplane landed at Velana International Airport at 8:48 p.m.

With the new plane tonight, the number of aircrafts in the Maldivian fleet currently stands at 21 with two Airbuses, ten seaplanes and nine Dash-8 airplanes used in domestic travel.

In an effort to expand the seaplane service, Maldivian has designed a special maintenance hangar for Twin Otter seaplanes. The national airline said that even though the seaplanes currently fly to resorts alone, they would be expanding the seaplane flights to the inhabited islands this year.

Head of Administration at Island Aviation, Ali Nashath told Sun Media today that while they are in discussions to start seaplane flights to the local islands, the service is set to begin in two or three months.

He said that the flights will start at one region and would expand in a month or so. Nashath said that discussions are underway as to the maintenance of the docking platforms for the planes.