The Maldives has been receiving a lot of love lately from Indian carriers, with multiple flight announcements to the country within a span of days. Vistara was the first to announce the Delhi- Malé flight, followed by IndiGo’s Hyderabad- Malé service resumption. And now, following in the footsteps of Vistara, IndiGo has brought back its own non-stop Delhi- Malé flight.
Delhi to Malé non-stop
IndiGo has announced that it will resume non-stop flights between Delhi and Malé from November 1st. The airline aims to capitalize on the massive demand from Indians heading to the island country. The flight was one of the casualties of international travel in the last few years, but there’s enough interest among tourists to bring this service back. Vinay Malhotra, Head of Global Sales, IndiGo, commented,
Schedule
The airline will operate four weekly flights between the two destinations according to the following schedule:
| Flight No. | Origin | Destination | Frequency | Effective | Departure | Arrival | Find flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6E 1135 | Delhi | Malé | Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday | November 1st | 08:50 | 12:25 | Click to find flights |
| 6E 1136 | Malé | Delhi | Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday | November 1st | 13:25 | 18:05 | Click to find flights |
IndiGo’s Delhi- Malé flight will compete with Vistara’s daily service on the route from October 1st. While IndiGo will provide no-frills budget travel options to passengers, those looking for a more premium experience can choose to fly one of Vistara’s Airbus A320neo aircraft on this sector, featuring a three-class configuration.
IndiGo’s recent announcement of the Hyderabad- Malé flight resumption will also add to its current 180 return flights between Male and Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Kochi. With the travel season around the corner, other Indian airlines could also start their own Maldives services from India, particularly Air India.
Popular destination
When one looks at the previous years’ trends for travel between India and the Maldives, it’s easy to see why carriers have renewed interest in such flights. Such is the appeal for the Maldives among Indians that thousands continued to travel to the islands even during the COVID pandemic under the travel bubble arrangement.
According to the data shared by India’s Ministry of External Affairs, India was the 5th largest source of tourists to the Maldives, with more than 90,000 Indians visiting that year. However, there was a massive jump in 2019, with India reaching the 2nd spot with more than 166,000 tourist arrivals in the Maldives.
Of course, the pandemic resulted in a dip in those numbers, but in 2020, India actually emerged as the largest source of tourism for the Maldives, with almost 63,000 Indians arriving at its shores. India retained the number 1 spot even in 2021 and 2022, with more than 290,000 and 240,000 arrivals, respectively.
Are you planning to travel to the Maldives this year? Are there any other points in India from which you would like to see direct connectivity with the Maldives?
We hope you like the items we recommend and discuss! Simple Flying has affiliate and sponsored partnerships, so we receive a share of the revenue from some of your purchases. This won’t affect the price you pay and helps us offer the best product recommendations.
Source : Simple Flying
