Successful year for VIA: private jet movements hike by 53%
The country's target for next year is to reach 2 million tourists.
By
Ahmed Mizyal
Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL), which operates the Velana International Airport (VIA), has said that this year has been a busy and successful year for the airport compared to the 2019 data.
After a ceremony held at VIA on Tuesday to welcome the 1.6 millionth tourist arriving in the Maldives, MACL General Manager for Corporate Communications, Hassan Areef said that the number of private jets arriving in the Maldives this year has increased significantly compared to 2019.
Hassan said that since the number of passengers in the past 2 years had come down drastically, the statistics were based on the figures for 2019.
Comparing this year and January-November 2019, he said:
-
General Aviation (Jet) Aircraft Movements – 1,702 in 2019; 2,610 this year, an increase of 53%
-
Total aircraft movement – 24,864 in 2019; 27,296 this year, an increase of 10%
-
The recovery rate of incoming passengers is currently 98%.
More airlines in winter
Hassan said eight airlines, which had suspended operations due to the Covid-19 pandemic, have resumed operations for this winter season. These airlines and their destinations are:
-
1-
British Airways
-
2-
Air France
-
3-
Austrian Airlines - Vienna
-
4-
Neos - Milan
-
5-
Euro Wings - Frankfurt
-
6-
Condor - Frankfurt
-
7-
Lot Polish - Warsaw
-
8-
ITA Airways - Rome
"British Airways [in the past] has always been a seasonal airline. But from next year [it's just started] British Airways will arrive in the Maldives at all times of the year. This means that tourists will always come via British Airways," Hassan said.
The airlines that have started operations entirely anew are:
-
1-
Wizz Air between Abu Dhabi and Maldives
-
2-
Kuwait Airways between Kuwait City and Maldives
Pointing out that the tourism target set for this year has been met, Hassan said that it was a great achievement.
"The other reason for saying this is that the Chinese market is closed. The Ukraine-Russia issue is also going on within Europe. In such a situation, it would be a great achievement to reach the target set by our government," he said.
The country's target for next year is to reach 2 million tourists.
If the target is achieved, it will be the first year that the country will receive such a large number of tourists in a year. So far, the highest number of tourist arrivals to the Maldives was recorded in 2019 before Covid-19. A total of 1.7 million tourists visited the Maldives that year.
