Fuvahmulah, Kaadedhdhoo and Hanimaadhoo Airport to be Closed Every Night

Transfers in The Maldives


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04 April, 2020

Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation has announced that regional airports: Fuvahmulah Airport, Kaadedhdhoo Airport and Hanimaadhoo International Airport will temporarily cease its 24 operations.

Effective 1st April, these airports will operate from 0600hrs to 1800hrs everyday.

The Ministry informs that this is due to the decrease in number of flights with regard to the travel bans.

However, if a flight has to be landed for a medical purpose or for seeking assistance, the airport will accommodate those unscheduled cases. The airlines have to seek approval from the airport three hours before landing.

In efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic Maldives has suspended issuing on-arrival visas and banned tourists arrival to the country from 27th March which has led to a decrease in the number of passengers to the domestic flights as well.

Maldives, the most dispersed country on the planet with 1,192 islands spread over roughly 90,000 square kilometres, has 14 airports, including four international airports. The government has contracted both local and international companies to develop additional domestic airports across the archipelago in a bid to boost tourism.

The Maldives has enforced a blanket suspension of on-arrival visa in a bid to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Even before the visa suspension, the Maldives had closed its borders to arrivals from some of the worst-hit countries, including mainland China, Italy, Bangladesh, Iran, Spain, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. Visitors from three regions of Germany (Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg), two regions of France (Île-de-France and Grand Est) and two regions of South Korea were also banned from entering the country.

All direct flights to and from China, Italy, South Korea and Iran were also cancelled.

Cruise ships and foreign yachts were also banned from docking at any of the country’s ports.

The coronavirus outbreak has hit the Maldivian economy hard, as travel restrictions and other preventive measures affect the country’s lucrative tourism industry, which contributes the bulk of the island nation’s state revenue and foreign reserves.

Before the pandemic, the government had been bullish about tourism prospects, targeting two million, high-spending holidaymakers this year after last year’s record 1.7 million.

However, tourist arrivals saw a year-over-year decline of 22.8 per cent in the first 10 days of March. Officials say the number of tourist arrivals to the Maldives could drop by half in 2020.

With arrival numbers falling and the visa suspension in effect, several resorts across the Maldives had been closed.

Tourism has been the bedrock of the Maldives’ economic success. The $5 billion-dollar economy grew by 6.7 per cent in 2018 with tourism generating 60 per cent of foreign income.

However, the government is at present projecting a possible 5.7 per cent economic contraction this year — an estimated $778 million hit.

On March 8, Maldives reported its first cases of the novel coronavirus, as two hotel employees tested positive for Covid-19 at a luxury resort in the archipelago.

Seventeen more cases — all foreigners working or staying resorts and liveaboard vessels except four Maldivians who had returned from the United Kingdom — were later identified.

However, 13 out of the 17 have made full recoveries. The four Maldivian patients are being treated at designated quarantine facilities, whilst the other two had been repatriated to their home country of Italy.

The Maldives announced a state of public health emergency on March 12, the first such declaration under a recent public health protection law.

The public health emergency declaration has allowed the government to introduce a series of unprecedented restrictive and social distancing measures, including a partial curfew in capital Male and its suburbs, and a nationwide closing of schools, colleges and universities. Non-essential services and public places in the capital such as gyms, cinemas and parks have also been shut.

Restaurants and cafes in the capital have been asked to stop dine-in service and switch to takeaway and delivery.

A nationwide shutdown of all guesthouses, city hotels and spa facilities located on inhabited islands is also in effect.

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Transfers in The Maldives

Coco Bodu Hithi

Transfers to / from the hotel usually do not fill most of us with fun, but in the Maldives everything is different. Forget about the long taxi trip from the airport, the unique location of this island nation means that to get your exclusive resort you will need to make a sea cruise or flight. A domestic flight, speedboat or seaplane transfer – depending on where your resort is located – to get you out to your island paradise. Most resorts will assist you in booking these transfers and for some it may be included in the price. Read More.

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