172,552 tourists arrived to the Maldives since the border reopened on 15th July 2020.
Maldives saw most tourist arrivals from India with 18,637 tourists followed by Russia with 15,323 tourists.
With the start of the festive season, December was the busiest month with a total of 96,411 tourist arrivals with an average of 3,310 per day.
With growing demand, many airlines recommenced flight services to the Maldives while airlines that were operating had increased number of flights to the Maldives. Emirates and Qatar Airways alone were operating up to four flights per day.
As the airport was getting busier and with apron space running out, domestic operations were moved to the northern apron while the southwest apron was used primarily for international arrivals. The Eastern apron was used for aircraft parking. As the parking space ran out, the new runway at VIA was used as a temporary parking space.
Gan International Airport, Maafaru International Airport, Dhaalu Airport, and Kooddoo Airport were packed with private jets as VIA could not accommodate all the arriving jets.
Gan international airport broke its record for the most private jets parked after 35 jets were parked at the airport. The last record was set five years ago in 2015 after 26 jets were parked in Gan.
With a busy festive season, the year 2021 looks promising, Tourism Ministry forecasts an estimated arrival of 1.5 million tourists for the year 2021.