China’s Chongqing Airlines has launched direct flights to the Maldives.
The airline’s maiden flight landed at Velana International Airport (VIA) on 15:40hrs on Monday, June 24, carrying 82 passengers.
The flight received a water salute, and its passengers were greeted by the Minister of Tourism Ibrahim Faisal, Chinese Ambassador to the Maldives Wang Lixin, and Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL)’s CEO and Managing Director Ibrahim Shareef Mohamed, along with senior officials of MACL, MMPRC and MATATO.
Besides this, Chongqing Airline’s Vice President Xie Jingping was also present at VIA to greet the arrivals.
Chongqing Airline is the fourth airline to launch direct flights to the Maldives, with Beijing Capital, China Eastern, and Sichuan leading the most recent addition.
Besides these four, Xiamen held chartered flights to the Maldives earlier in February 2024.
China is the top tourist source market to the Maldives since February this year. As of June 22, arrivals from China had exceeded 113,000. Although the market dominated the rankings until 2019, it slipped out of the rankings after outbound travels of China were shut in 2020 following Covid-19 pandemic outbreak.