National airline

Gan: Ahmed Mujthaba

A Maldivian flight A320 aircraft has landed in Gan International Airport yesterday for the first time.

Aimed for the Chinese New Year, the A320 aircraft flight landed in Gan carrying a large number of tourists and local passengers.

Speaking at Gan International Airport, Island Aviation’s Managing Director Abdul Haaris said that yesterday was a joyful day in the company’s history and that they are planning to hold jet aircraft trips between Male’ and Gan, if they can gather enough support for the sector. He however said that they have not started making scheduled flights from Male’ to Gan.

“This is a very happy day for us, in the life of this company. It is the day we landed our A320 on Gan for the first time. This trip was made due to a large demand from Gan to Male’,” said Haaris.

“We have not yet started scheduled flights for this aircraft. Jet aircraft flights are, in relation to normal flights, very expensive. So if we can’t gain the load, it will not be financially justifiable. We will conduct more jet aircraft flights according to the support we receive from the public,” Haaris said.

When asked if the flights by the new aircraft will have an impact on the fare, Haaris said that they have not planned to bring any changes to the price.

Island Avaition has previously been using the A320 model aircrafts solely for international flights. The aircraft currently has regular flights to Mumbai and Chennai of India, and Dhaka of Bangladesh. The aircraft contains 152 seats, which include 14 business class seats and 138 economy class seats.