Maldives Airport Company Limited (MACL), on Tuesday, revealed that only 399 international flights landed at Velana International Airport (VIA) within the first month since Maldives reopened its borders.
As per MACL statistics, a total of 7,607 passengers arrived in Maldives between July 15 and August 15, while 9,269 departures were recorded in the same period.
Maldives Immigration previously revealed that a total of 5,177 tourists arrived in Maldives between July 15 and August 15, accounting for the majority of incoming passengers.
In addition to international flights, MACL noted that 365 domestic flights involving 3,480 arrivals and 4,323 departures, were also recorded within the country during the one-month period.
The total 764 flight movements recorded in the first month following the state's decision to reopen borders demonstrate a considerable reduction compared to the precovid average of 252 daily flight movements at VIA.
Similarly, tourist arrivals are significantly lower in comparison to the previous year, with total arrivals in July representing only 1.3 percent of 2019 figures.
As with numerous countries around the world, in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Maldives closed its air and sea borders to tourist arrivals on March 27, halting the issuance of on-arrival visas.
The restrictions on international travel left Maldives' heavily tourism reliant economy in an extremely vulnerable state. In mid-April, the World Bank projected that Maldives would be the worst-hit economy in the South Asian region due to the pandemic.
Maldives estimates a shortfall of approximately USD 450 million (MVR 6.9 billion) in foreign currency and a state deficit of MVR 13 billion in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on the tourism industry.
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