Maldivian, the airline division of Island Aviation Services of the Maldives has commenced its scheduled operations to Colombo.

Maldivian will initially operate five daily flights on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Two types of aircraft, Bombardier Dash8 Q300 (50 seats) and Q200 (37 seats) will be utilised by Maldivian for operations to and from Colombo. This is the second destination which has been included in the Maldivian International network after Trivandrum, India.

Managing Director of Maldivian, Bandhu Ibrahim Saleem said that he was happy with the commencement of the flights to Sri Lanka. “Given the vast tourist potential between our two countries, we foresee a booming business and great promise in this sector”.

He said that there is still a huge amount of capacity and it is a growing market. Maldivian is represented in Sri Lanka by Hemas Aviation (Pvt) Ltd, the GSA for Maldivian since December 1, 2000.

Director Hemas Aviation (Pvt) Ltd., Imitiaz Esufally said Maldivian flying to Sri Lanka is a very welcome move as it will help increase trade, as well as the movement of people between the two countries.

This is a great for the aviation industry of Sri Lanka. He said that he was delighted that the air link between Sri Lanka and the Maldives has been further enhanced by the arrival of Maldivian.

“This will undoubtedly give the Sri Lankan market a greater choice of airlines and further assist passengers to conveniently link with their internal route network within the Maldives”, he said.

Head of Hemas Transportation sector Imitiaz Esufally said that the company has over a decade-long relationship with Maldivian, and looked forward to supporting and growing with them, in the years to come.

Maldivian is the airline division of Island Aviation Services based in Male in the Maldives.

It operates international flights in addition to inter-island services. Its main base is Male International Airport.

The Company’s core business activities include Domestic Air Services, Ground Handling, Cargo Services at the Male International Airport Operation of CIP lounge at the Male International Airport and the Engineering Services and Flight Operations.