Russian airline Aeroflot to resume weekly flights to the Maldives

The leading Russian airline, Aeroflot has announced that it will resume weekly flights to the Maldives starting from 10 September 2020.

According to a brief press release by Aeroflot, the airline has scheduled two services per week between Moscow and Male, on the following schedule:

• Flight SU0322 Sheremetyevo—Malé on Thursdays and Sundays.
• Return flight SU0323 Malé— Sheremetyevo on Fridays and Sundays.

The airline has also resumed international flights to Dubai from 11 September 2020, and Cairo from 9 September 2020. The frequency of flights is subject to change as Aeroflot’s international flight schedule is restored.

The Russian Federation closed its borders and suspended international air travel on March 28 in response to the covid-19 pandemic. It announced a partial reopening of its borders in June, to allow people who needed to work, study, get medical treatment, or look after relatives to travel abroad. With international flights on hold, the country continued other flights bringing home Russians stranded abroad. The country resumed international flights from 1st August to Great Britain, Tanzania, and Turkey. and flights resumed to Switzerland from 15th August.

Russia is the 4th most important market to the Maldives based on figures from January 2020. In 2019, the Russian market showed a 17.5% growth in arrivals to the Maldives. The resumed flights from Russia will boost Maldive’s effort of reviving the countries tourism-dependent economy after the reopening of its international borders on July 15, 2020.  

Aeroflot holds 4-Star Airline status from Skytrax and was named Best Airline in Eastern Europe for the eighth time at the 2019 Skytrax World Airline Awards. Aeroflot has also been awarded a five-star global airline rating by US aviation association APEX.