National Airline, Maldivian, has commenced operations between Malé and Nanjing, China.
The first flight from Nanjing - an A321 aircraft recently acquired by Maldivian - arrived at Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA) with 200 passengers today.
Maldivian already flies to two other destinations in China.
Chinese Ambassador to Maldives Wang Fukang has said that 109 million Chinese tourists travelled to destinations around the world last year, out of which 360,000 visited Maldives.
He said that this 360,000 is a small number, and also highlighted that China has been Maldives’ biggest tourism market for the past five years.
Island Aviation Service, the company that operates Maldivian, said that the new flights would facilitate the arrival of 200 tourists from China daily – resulting in the possible arrival of 1,000 tourists per week and 4,000 tourists per month.
Island Aviation has also announced that Maldivian would participate in travel fairs and hold roadshows in three cities at the end of 2015.