The national airline, Maldivian has launched direct flights to Ratmalana, a suburb in Colombo District, Sri Lanka.
Maldivian’s operations to Ratmalana comes after the Colombo International Airport, Ratmalana (CIAR) which had been Sri Lanka’s first international airport, reopened for international flights after 55 years.
The inaugural flight from Male’ to Colombo landed at the CIAR to a celebratory water cannon salute on Sunday, marking the first international flight to land at the airport in half a century.
Maldivian states it will be operating three weekly flights to Ratmalana, on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The Economy Promo fare for a two-way ticket to Ratmalana is MVR 3,312 and the Economy Flex fare for a two-way ticket is MVR 3,988.
Maldivian also operates scheduled flights to neighboring countries India and Bangladesh.
The airline had previously operated flights to Sri Lanka’s Bandaranaike International Airport and Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport, but halted the operations due to lack of passengers.