Kazakhstan’s national airline, Air Astana, has commenced flight operations to the Maldives.
Air Astana’s first flight to the Maldives landed in Velana International Airport (VIA) at 07:05 a.m. on December 5. The Airbus A321 flight of Air Astana, which arrived with 146 tourists, was greeted with a warm welcome at VIA.
The airline will operate three weekly flights to the Maldives. The flights will be operated on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
General Manager Corporate Communications of Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL), Hassan Areef, said the commencement of flights from airlines which had not previously operated to the Maldives signifies the progress achieved since the country reopened borders on July 15. He attributed the success to the hard work and determination of all working in the tourism industry.
Air Astana had earlier revealed there is a high demand for flights to the Maldives. As such, the airline announced it would be upgrading its flights to the Maldives to a Boeing-767 flight, starting from December 16, in order to accommodate more passengers. The upgraded flights would be operated until January 16, to cover the winter season.
Several international airlines have resumed operations to the Maldives since the country reopened its borders. Tourist arrivals have also been increasing steadily over the past few months. Statistics of the Ministry of Tourism indicates over 82,000 tourists have visited the Maldives since July 15, including 35,000 arrivals in November.