ITA Airways Commences Scheduled Direct Flights To The Maldives From Rome Fiumicino
Tuesday 20th of December 2022
ITA Airways, the flagship carrier of Italy has made its inaugural flight to the Maldives on 18th December 2022. The scheduled direct flight took off from Rome Fiumicino and landed in Velana International Airport on Sunday and was operated on class commercial aircraft of Airbus A350.
The Italian market has long since been a traditional market for the Maldives with the country currently accounting for a great proportion of the arrival numbers. Therefore, to meet the forecasted demand from the market, the new connection will have several weekly frequencies throughout the peak travel season and easter holidays from 18th December to 15th April 2023.
The airline is scheduled to operate two weekly flights on Saturdays and Sundays (17th -18th December and from 28th January-25th March) and will increase the frequency to three weekly flights between 21st- 25th December and from 19th – 22nd January. Four weekly frequencies will be seen between the period of 26th December- 1st January and will be racked up to five weekly frequencies between 2nd-8th January.
Departure from Rome Fiumicino Airport is set at 10:15 pm with arrival at Velana International Airport at 11:25 am local time. From Velana International Airport the departure is set at 1:25 pm local time with arrival at Rome Fiumicino at 7:30-7:45 pm. With this seasonal service, Italian holidaymakers will be able to conveniently travel to the Maldives for the winter holidays as well as the easter holidays. Moreover, the new route will also connect passengers with flights from other major European airports, as a result of ITA Airway’s extensive global network.
Speaking on the commencement of service, ITA Airways Chief Commercial Officer and CEO Volare, Emiliana Limosani said “We are proud and excited to inaugurate ITA Airways flight from Rome Fiumicino to Malè, a new intercontinental connection which launches just a few days after the opening of the direct flights to Tokyo and Delhi. This connection aims at further developing our network by identifying destinations of greatest interest and with the highest potential not only for the final customer but also for business partners, tour operators and travel agencies. ITA Airways passengers will also be travelling to the Maldives with convenient connections not only from Italy but from all over Europe.”
CEO of Visit Maldives, Thoyyib Mohamed remarked “We look forward to welcoming the Italian flagship carrier to the Maldives once again and we are confident that the increase in direct connectivity will boost arrivals during the holiday and winter season. Italy has always been one of our key markets, one of historical importance for the Maldivian tourism industry. Tourists from Italy were in fact the first to visit the Maldives when we started tourism development exactly 50 years ago and, today, we are really excited about this direct connection between the two Countries. Currently, Italy is the 5th market in terms of volume of arrivals with over 80,000 visitors (5.4% of the total market share)".
