On the 4th of September Villa Air FlyMe operated their first-ever international flight with a charter flight to Bandaranaike International Airport, Sri Lanka with their newest ATR 72-600 series aircraft.
Flyme has informed on a press release that the airline is commencing scheduled flight operations connecting the Maldives to Sri Lanka through flights to Ratmalana Airport. Male’ to Colombo route would be a great challenge for the airline as a lot of airlines presently operate this route like Emirates, Sri Lankan Airlines and etc with wide body jets like the Boeing 777, Airbus A330 however; Flyme can take advantage by operating to Ratmalana Airport. Bandaranaike International Airport is located 32.5km north of the capital Colombo however Ratmalana airport is just 15km south of Colombo. Colombo city would be closer to Ratmalana airport and road congestion would not be as busy comparing to traveling to Bandaranaike Airport. Ratmalana Airport itself being a smaller airport; it would not be as congested and busy. This would be beneficial for frequent flyers who would prefer to get to the city at a quicker time. There were talks earlier regarding flights to Ratmalana Airport by national airline Maldivian however the airline never operated this route.
Flyme has further expressed regarding their work in progress on starting scheduled flights to neighboring India. ‘Maldivian’ through Covid-19, operated cargo, charter, and repatriation flights to Sri Lanka however the airline is yet to commence commercial scheduled passenger flights.
There are more than 20,000 Maldivians living in Sri Lanka and thousands of passengers travel between these two destinations throughout the year with multiple airlines operating this route. This is a great leap forward for the aviation industry in the Maldives, especially during a difficult time. We look forward to the day the FlyMe and other airlines in the Maldives can further expand and operate to more routes with bigger aircraft and providing bigger opportunities for our people.
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