The third ATR aircraft acquired by Maldivian, the national airline, arrived on Sunday.
The ferry flight of the new ATR 42-600 turboprop travelled from France and landed in the Maldives, expanding the airline’s fleet to a total of 15 aircraft. As the name suggests, the ATR 42 has a maximum capacity of 42 passengers.
The national airline signed to acquire new ATR aircraft to replace the ageing Dash-8s in January 2021. Under the agreement, the first two planes, ATR 72-600s, arrived in January 2023 and were put into commercial operation later that month.
Maldivian is currently undergoing a fleet overhaul and has plans to fully replace its Dash-8 fleet with new ATRs. The airline made the move since the older Dash-8 models are no longer manufactured by De Havilland, causing several maintenance malfunctions and interrupting the airline’s flight schedules.
With the new ATR variants, the airline hopes to reduce interruptions to its flight schedules.
Meanwhile, the airline has already announced that it is seeking interested parties to purchase nine Dash-8 aircrafts for its fleet.
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