Number of passengers from Bengaluru to Male dropped in Q1 2024, compared to Q1 2023
During the first quarter of 2024, fewer passengers flew between Bengaluru and Male, the capital of Maldives, compared to the same period last year.
As per the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) city-wise report, on international passengers to and from the Indian territory during this January-March, 41,294 passengers commuted between the two cities. During the same period in 2023, 57,502 made the trip. There was a drop of 16,208 passengers.
In January, a diplomatic row boke out between India and Maldives, after a few Maldivian leaders posted derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for this trip to Lakshadweep. There were also calls online for Indian tourists to boycott Maldives.
Over the last few years, Male emerged as one of the busiest tourist destinations from Bengaluru, especially after the pandemic.
In the past four years, barring 2020 when the airspace was shut owing to COVID-19 as only repatriation flights and flights under the air bubble arrangements were allowed, the number of passengers travelling on the Bengaluru-Male route steadily increased.
In 2019, 99,184 passengers commuted between the two cities, in 2020 it dropped to 32,343, and in 2022 the number rose to 1,51,987.
The year 2022 saw the most passengers (1,97,058) commuting between the two cities. During that year, Male was among Kempegowda International Airport’s (KIA) top three international routes. In 2023, around 1,77,991 passengers travelled on this route.
Impressed by these numbers, Maldivian, the national airline of Maldives, commenced flights to Bengaluru from Male from October 2023. From this March, Manta Air started direct commercial flights from KIA to Dhaalu Airport in Maldives.
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