National flag career of France, Air France is to start scheduled flights to Maldives this year. The airline stated that they will begin flights on November 2017.
According to a statement by the airline, they plan to operate flights two days per week. They said that, there will be scheduled flights from Charles De Gaulle airport of Paris to Velana International Airport on every Wednesday and Saturday.
The flight from Paris will depart at 20:50 hours at French time. The flight will land in Maldives at 10:20 hours. The flight from Maldives will depart every Thursday and Sunday at 14:05 hours. That flight will land at 19:35 hours in France.
The boeing 777-200 will have 260 economy class seats, 24 premium economy class seats and 28 business class seats. While a lot of tourists visit Maldives from European countries, the tourists from France visit Maldives via Qatar Airlines or Sri Lankan airlines after transiting in several other countries.
Number of tourists from France to Maldives reduced to an extent last year. Last year 40,487 tourists from France visited Maldives while in the previous year 42,024 tourists visited from France. Hence there is a decrease of 3.7 percent in 2016.
Once scheduled flight from France begins, more people from European countries can visit Maldives easily and hence, it will benefit the tourism industry of Maldives.