Due to the unavailability to operate flights national airline Maldivian chartered airplanes from Manta Air and Villa Air to operate nearly 60 flights in the last two weeks.
During the last few days, the carrier has chartered numerous flights from Manta Air and Villa Air reportedly due to the unavailability of aircraft to operate these flights.
National airline Maldivian is the largest domestic carrier in the Maldives with a fleet of 10 De Havilland Dash-8’s.
In the past week there has been zero flight activity recorded in four of the airlines Dash-8’s which explains the need charter.
For comparison, the airline is presently operating 20 to 25 flights per day however just in 2019 with the same fleet the carrier operated over 40 flights per day at peak.
Charter flights would cost airliners more as normally these flights are priced accordingly for a flight with full passenger and cargo load regardless of the actual number of seats occupied.
Flights can easily cost nearly 5,000$ (MVR 77,100) for an hour thus chartering 60 flights can easily rank bills up to MVR 5-10 million to the national carrier.
Manta Air and Villa Air have so far operated flights to Hoarafushi, Hanimaadhoo, Maafaru, Ifuru, Kadhdhoo, Kaadedhdhoo, Maavarulu, Fuvahmulah, and Gan carrying passengers for Maldivian.
These charters would result in heavy losses for Maldivian unless each flight is packed with passengers and the revenue earned is equivalent or higher than the cost to charter.
Nonetheless, it is a great loss to lose revenue during the busy season which the carrier could have used to maximize profits especially after the heavy impact of the pandemic.
In the second quarter of 2021 Maldivian reported a net loss of a whopping MVR 99.6 million.
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