French flag carrier airline Airfrance is in the process of introducing scheduled flights to the Maldives in late 2012, President Mohamed Nasheed announced yesterday in his weekly radio address.
Delivering the radio address Friday morning shortly after his return from an official visit to France last week, President Nasheed said he met the Vice-President of Airfrance and was informed that preliminary preparations for the scheduled flights would take six months.
“Nevertheless, we expect that God willing an Airfrance scheduled flight will begin operations to the Maldives in Europe’s winter of 2012,” he said.
The government delegation also met with French tour operators to discuss ways to increase tourist arrivals from France, Nasheed added.
Prominent resort businessman and Independent MP Ahmed ‘Sun Travel’ Shiyam was part of the Maldives delegation.
“As you know, at the moment about 40,000 tourists from France visit the Maldives [annually],” Nasheed said. “Our aim is to double that figure and undertake efforts to attract French tourists in the same numbers as British tourists come to the Maldives right now.”
Tourist arrivals reached a record high in 2010 with 791,917 arrivals, a 20 percent increase compared to 2009. Tourists from the United Kingdom accounted for 15 percent of the total arrivals at 118,961.
While arrivals from France were considerably lower than England or the UK as a whole, the French market grew by nine percent in 2010 from the previous year. Some 50,373 French tourists visited the Maldives in 2009.
The Maldives meanwhile signed the Paris-Nairobi Initiative during the visit, Nasheed continued, which would facilitate French assistance for renewable energy programmes and adaptation measures for beach erosion.
President Nasheed signed the accord on behalf of the Maldives at a meeting with Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, the French Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing.
The Maldivian delegation also met with senior officials of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), a French bilateral development finance institution, who “gave the green light” for more water and sewerage projects in addition to the sewerage projects AFD has undertaken in Gaaf Dhaal Thinadhoo and Laamu Gan.
“Additionally, good discussions took place with the French Foreign Minister,” Nasheed continued. “He welcomed our standing together with France on the issue of Libya. I thanked the French government on behalf of the Maldivian people for their efforts to help the people of Libya.”
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