Tag: Mega Maldives

Bodu beru dancers and water cannon salute welcome first scheduled flight from Seoul

Tourists on the first Mega Maldives flight arriving in Male’ direct from Seoul in South Korea this morning were greeted by bodu beru dancers and airport staff handing out coconuts.

As the plane taxied off the runway, two of the airport’s fire engines shot water cannon in an arc over the plane. The 158 bemused passengers were greeted at the top of the stairs by CEO of Mega Maldives George Weinmann, and accompanied through immigration by pilots and flight crew.

Speaking at a press conference of local and South Korean journalists later this morning, Weinmann observed that while the flight was not the first direct flight from Seoul, it was the first such scheduled service and the first for a Maldivian carrier.

All four of the airline’s routes launched this year, he observed, were to cities not previously served by direct flights including Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and now Seoul.

“We believe this will increase the total demand for the Maldivian [tourism] product, and also create new opportunities for trade such as exports to Korea,” said Weinmann, a former rocket and satellite engineer with aerospace giant Boeing.

Weinmann said the decision to fly to Korea was influenced by the discovery that South Korea was operating five flights daily to Hawaii, such was the appeal of the iconic tropical destination to the Korean market.

“The flight time to Hawaii from Seoul is nine hours, similar to the flight time to Male’, and the total price of hotels is also similar,” he noted. “This will allow for the development of a lot of new business and trade.”

A water cannon salute greets Mega's first flight from Seoul

Korean arrivals to the Maldives increased 54 percent in 2010 compared to the previous year, from 16,000 to 24,000, suggesting that the country was a rapidly growing market for the Maldives. Weinmann has previously told Minivan News that Mega’s niche is to have flights from Asia that arrive during the day, thus avoiding the need for Asian visitors to overnight in Male’ or Hulhule’ while waiting for daytime transfers.

MD of the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC), Simon Hawkins, acknowledged that the South Korean market had been neglected as far as tourism promotion was concerned, in favour of traditional markets such as Europe.

“We aim to remedy that, now that we have identified South Korea as an emerging market. We want to appeal not just to honeymooners, but also families and organisers of meetings, conferences and exhibitions,” he said.

Chief Commercial Officer of Ibrahim Nasir International Airport, Prasad Gopalan, meanwhile cited a report stating that South Korea was ranked third in rising numbers of millionaires, after India and China.

“We have done our research – South Korea is an emerging market for the Maldives,” he said.

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Out on a wing: Mega bets on Chinese market

The shifting demographics of the Maldives tourism industry presents new challenges – and a great many opportunities – for the country to grow as a destination, says CEO of new Maldivian flag carrier Mega Maldives, George Weinmann, during a ceremony in Male’ this week to mark the airline’s launch of direct flights to Shanghai and Beijing.

Since its maiden flight between Gan and Hong Kong early this year, Mega has focused on the country’s booming Chinese market. Chinese visitors last year showed the highest number of arrivals over more established markets, and were widely credited with insulating the Maldives from the effects of the economic recession afflicting the UK and Europe.

Weinmann emphasises that “while the Chinese market is now the number one market for the Maldives, is still not a mature market.”

“The agents in China don’t know the Maldives as well as the European agents who have been coming here for 30 years,” he explains. “The new agents are often asking us for help finding hotel rooms, and negotiate with the hotels – it’s not really our job, we’re an airline and there’s plenty of travel agencies on both sides – but oftentimes they aren’t connected. There have been incidents in the past where certain agents get very excited and think they can just fly their guests here, only to find there are no hotel rooms for their guests.”

Without intending to become a travel agency, the airline had found itself becoming an intermediary between the Chinese tour operators and resorts, he says, many of which are still getting to grips with the unique demands of the new market.

“We talk to resorts that are suffering with occupancy, perhaps 30-40 percent,” says Mega’s Marketing Director Ali Faiz, “and see how we can help each other. We also meet with resorts that are popular with the Chinese market and offer our jet to help them sell the Maldives.”

Whereas European guests tend to stay up to two weeks at resorts, the current trip pattern for Chinese visitors is very short – “four nights, five days,” says Weinmann.

“They are much more activity focused – a little less sun and sea, a little more doing things on a boat,” he says. “Like every other market they are very food conscious – but the type of food they are looking for is different, which for instance affects how we cater for inflight meals –  although everyone likes ice-cream,” he adds.

Moreover, “as someone who has lived in China for seven years – they are huge spenders. The Chinese love to buy things. One complaint they may have with the Maldives is that there is not enough stuff to buy – they come here often with large wads of money and then go home with it. That’s an opportunity for local businessmen.”

The market is also rather risk adverse, which the fledgling airline found to its detriment in May when Hong Kong authorities issued a travel warning for the Maldives, triggered by excitable global media coverage of opposition-led protests in Male’.

“That was a near tragedy for us. We almost didn’t survive that period,” Weinmann acknowledges. “It came at the same time as changes on our side with pricing, and we almost lost the entire month of May because people who had been intending to go to the Maldives but hadn’t yet bought their tickets decided not to go.

“There was very low additional sales in May. Those people who had already bought their tickets – who had spent hundreds of dollars on rooms – couldn’t get that money back so they came anyway, and of course there were no problems. But when a warning like that goes out, anybody who has the discretion to choose not to buy, to choose somewhere else or postpone their trip, will do so. It doesn’t matter if it’s a yellow, red or black warning – it’s a huge hit. Just ask people in Thailand about what they experienced during their local turmoil. It is a roller-coaster ride in terms of bookings.”

Mega worked with resorts and the government to try and reassure visitors that the protests were limited to a few streets of the capital city – which few visitors to the country even set foot on.

“Recovery takes time,” Weinmann says. “When the incidents are over, then you have to go out and educate the market and tell all the travel agents what is going on. For a market like China that is growing as fast as it is, they do have other choices, and they are not as comfortable with the Maldives as the European market, which sees such incidents as a small bump in road.”

“We did obviously recover,” he adds, “because we launched Beijing-Shanghai a couple of months later, and that’s been very successful.”

Mega subsequently decided to introduce free cancellation insurance for every ticket, covering the first night of accommodation in the event of a delayed flight, which Weinmann explains was a way of offsetting the non-negotiable cancellation policies of many resorts in the Maldives.

“It’s one of the biggest issues in the Asian market right now,” he said. “We are competing against other Asian markets such as Bali and Thailand, and other island destinations such as Guam that are developing very fast, and in many of these countries hotels don’t have the kind of cancellation policies that exist in the Maldives. It makes it more risky for tour operators to sell the Maldives – we’re trying to eliminate that risk.”

Weinmann believes the Maldives also has room to grow existing markets, and said Mega hoped to launch flights to so-called ‘tier 2’ cities and stimulate growth in places such as Eastern Europe.

Korea also has more potential, he explained, noting that Mega would introduce a flight to Seoul in September.

“There are current five wide-body aircraft flying between Korea and Hawaii every day. That’s a nine hour flight, and the Maldives is probably a little cheaper.”

India, on the Maldives’ doorstep, was exactly two years behind China he predicts.

“But it’s a challenge that regulations prevent a Maldivian carrier flying more than 200 seats to Mumbai or Delhi. We have 250 seats, and we’d like to change that.”

Cargo imports are another growth opportunity, Weinmann says, announcing 15 discounted tickets to kickstart a trade delegation of Maldivian traders and businessmen to find opportunities in China.

“Right now all the cargo coming into the Maldives goes through Sri Lanka, Singapore or Dubai,” he explains. “Not much is produced in these locations, it’s all coming from somewhere else – a lot of it from China. We want to increase direct imports from China which should mean less cost and cheaper prices, as there will be less middlemen involved.”

Meanwhile, the airline has begun recruiting more Maldivian cabin crew, in addition to the two classes already through, and is currently training six Maldivian pilots and soon, engineering cadets. Weinmann predicts the company will employ over 100 Maldivian staff by the end of the year.

“We not doing this just because we want to, but because it’s the right thing for the airline. We think Maldives aviation can grow a lot further,” he says.

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“Maldivian feel” central to flight group’s Gan to Hong Kong aspirations

The arrival of a new year is also expected to see a new local airline called Mega Maldives take to the country’s skies in what it has said is an attempt to bring a greater share of the lucrative tourist transportation market into local hands, at least should everything go to plan during its launch.

After today obtaining an Airline Operating Certificate (AOC) from the government that will allow it to operate flights both inside and out of the country, the new company has claimed that it hopes to launch the first of a number of scheduled services between the destinations of Hong Kong, Male’ International Airport and Gan Airport from New Year’s Eve.

The new airline said that although most of the paper work required to begin flight operations alongside the AOC has been completed, it expected to receive confirmation that it can commence flights between the Maldives and Hong Kong during the next 10 days or so.

Having obtained permission to fly, Mega Maldives has become the latest in a growing number of flight operators announcing services to try and tap interest in travelling to the Maldives from destinations across Asia to airports both in Male’ and Gan during the last 12 months.

Package companies such as India-based MakeMyTrip said they have been operating scheduled flights to Gan since early October, while budget airlines such as AirAsia and SpiceJet have also announced plans to begin flying to the Maldives by the first quarter of 2011.

Tourism officials in the country have claimed that tourist interest within the Maldives has begun to strengthen again in 2010 after a difficult 12 months in 2009, with official figures showing a 21.8 per cent rise in visitor numbers up to October.

Mifzal Ahmed, a board director for the 55 per cent Maldivian-owned Mega Maldives joint venture, told Minivan News that the company aimed to follow in the footsteps of operators such as Hawaiian Airlines by attempting to tap into interest for authentic local experiences and services – even from within an aeroplane.

The Maldives already has a national airliner under the Maldivian brand, which is operated by Island Aviation Services and currently operates services to Trivandrum, India, alongside its domestic services.

Maldivian has itself expressed interest in possible plans to expand to more international destinations upon an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of its stock, expected around halfway through the next decade.

However, Ahmed claimed that Mega Maldives has been created in an attempt to offer international passengers from across Asia “something different” in terms of travelling to the Maldives, aside from being one of a few international airlines currently flying to Gan.
“First of all we have a crew that is more than 50 per cent Maldivian, which reflects our aim to try and bring a Maldives feel to our services,” he said.

Alongside having a cabin crew that the airline said would be dressed in uniform that reflects traditional Maldives’ style, the company is also considering looking at incorporating elements such as local music, crafts and even possibly food dishes into its services, according to Ahmed, a Maldivian himself.

“We will try this, it will depend on in-flight catering, but to us this will feel like a Maldivian service.”
Mega Maldives is a joint venture company with 55 per cent of its operations owned by Maldives-based ZM Holdings and the other 45 per cent belonging to US-based group, W-Cap.

It is this Maldivian element within the business that Ahmed said had helped encourage the group to begin flying to Gan, where he claimed foreign rivals may, by contrast, have worried about the possible financial “danger” in travelling to a destination that is not as well supported by international flight services.

“On one side there is a cost aspect in flying to Gan,” he said. “On the other hand, there is strong interest in creating more services to the destination, the government and airport are very keen to have us flying there.”

Ultimately, Ahmed said that the service would not been bound solely to Gan Airport and would initially aim to fly between the southerly Maldives’ island, Male’ and Hong Kong as part of a multi-destination flight service.

As an entirely new flight provider, Ahmed claimed Mega Maldives was not too concerned about potentially going up against established flight groups already flying to the Maldives, such as Emirates, Qatar and Singapore Airlines, as they were looking to operate a different kind of service.  “We operate on a scheduled charter model by working with travel agents, which will allow us to provide more reasonable fares,” he said. “Much like all flight operators in the Maldives, most of our traffic will be through tourism, though we can develop special partnerships with travel agents to offer special and one- off routes to destinations like India.”

Ahmed claimed that this strategy could also allow Mega Maldives to put on occasional “one-off” services to allow Maldivians to travel to special sporting or religious events abroad in the future.

In the long-term though, Ahmed claimed that Mega Maldives does also have aspirations for regional expansion of its services.

“We have interest in other markets in Asia, though we know we have competition, so we are keeping our cards close to our chest at the moment,” he said.

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