Flydubai to resume flights to the Maldives next month

Dubai-based airline flydubai will resume flights to Malé, capital of the Maldives, starting October 27.

The service, which the carrier initially operated between 2013 and 2018, will be reinstated “due to popular demand” as Maldives welcomed back tourists of all nationalities earlier this summer, a statement said.

Flights will operate four times a week to Malé on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Flight FZ 1569 will depart from Terminal 3, Dubai International at 10.35am and the return flight FZ 1570 will depart from Maldives’ Ibrahim Nasir International Airport at 11.30pm (local time).

Business class return fares to Malé from Dubai will start at Dhs8,925 while economy class return fares will start from Dhs3,625 including taxes.

The route brings the number of destinations flydubai operates to 40 across its network in Africa, Central Asia, Europe, Indian Subcontinent and the Middle East.

The carrier has been increasing its operations since July and continues to operate all-cargo flights and repatriation flights in addition to its published schedule.

Sudhir Sreedharan, senior vice president of Commercial Operations (UAE, GCC, Africa and the Indian subcontinent) at flydubai, said: “We are pleased to restart our operations to the Maldives. This has always been a popular destination for our passengers in the UAE, GCC and the Russian speaking markets who are seeking a beach holiday.”

In line with the Covid-19 safe tourism guidelines and hygiene certification programme issued by the Maldivian ministry of Tourism in June, all 156 resorts situated in the island nation will be required to take protective measures, ensuring the safety of tourists and also staff working in the industry.

The Maldives has restarted its visa on arrival facility and passengers must complete a “Traveller Health declaration” form 24 hours before arrival on the official website.

“We continue to see signs of recovery as more countries start to lift restrictions on international travel,” said Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO at flydubai.

“Working together, all the stakeholders in the travel industry have a role to play to safeguard travel in this new environment enabling more people to travel confidently. We remain agile in our operations and committed to gradually adding more flights to further support the flow of trade and tourism around the region as we look ahead to this new way of travel in the months to come.”

Flydubai has recently introduced a new free global Covid-19 cover for passengers who book for travel between September 1 and November 30, 2020. The new service covers passengers’ health expenses and quarantine costs if diagnosed with Covid-19 during their trip.

Read: Dubai carrier flydubai offers free global Covid-19 cover to passengers

In the UAE, flydubai has also partnered with Aster DM Healthcare and NMC Healthcare to offer passengers PCR testing at special rates.

Read: Flydubai, Aster offer discounted Covid-19 PCR tests for passengers