The flag carrier of France, Air France has started flight operations to the Maldives. According to the Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL), the airline started its operations to the Maldives yesterday, 19th December 2020.
MACL had revealed that the Air France flight carried 268 passengers to the Maldives yesterday. Furthermore, the airline will operate 3 weekly flights to the tropical island destination. France is one of the leading tourist markets to the Maldives. Likewise, in 2019, the country contributed to a 3.5% of tourist arrival market share with 59,738 arrivals.
Restarting @airfrance to Maldives @VelanaAirport is an encouraging sign of our tourism bouncing back. Thanks #AirFrance.
Tourism Minister of the Maldives, Dr. Abdulla Mausoom tweeted.
A number of airlines have restarted their flight operations to the Maldives. With the addition of France, 20 airlines are currently flying to the Maldives from around the globe. Bahrain’s flag carrier, GulfAir has also recently restarted its flight operations to the Maldives.
While Air France just started flight operations to the Maldives, other major airlines started their operations within a few days after the Maldives reopened its borders on 15th July 2020. Since then, many of these airlines have increased their flight frequency to the island nation as well. Emirates recently increased its frequency to 4 daily flights to the island archipelago.
Also read: Maldives Records Over 4,500 Tourist Arrivals in a Single Day
The Maldives recently celebrated the arrival of 100,000th tourist since the border reopening, followed by the milestone of 500,000 arrivals in 2020. Additionally, the island nation has also recorded the highest number of tourist arrivals yesterday. According to Maldives’ Tourism Minister, Dr. Abdulla Mausoom, 4567 tourists arrived in the Maldives yesterday (a beautiful number indeed!).
Colliding with the holiday season, tourists arrivals to the Maldives have steadily grown. Meanwhile, the Maldives predicts it will reach over 1.5 million tourist arrivals in 2021.
Feature image by Velana International Airport via Twitter
