Maldivian, the national airline of Maldives has announced that three new destinations to China will be added to its network commencing in February 2015. The three additional cities are Xi'an, Nanjing and Changsha.
Xi'an is the capital of Shaanxi province, located in the northwest of the People's Republic of China, in the center of the Guanzhong Plain and is formerly romanized as Sian. Nanjing is the capital of Jiangsu province in Eastern China. It is rich in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China during the rule of several dynasties. Changsha is the capital of Hunan Province in South-Central China.
Maldivian started flights to China in July 2013 with Chongqing the 4th largest city in China after Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin as the first destination. Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province in the heart of China which is one of the major commercial hubs in the country and one of the biggest metropolitan cities was added to its network an year later in July 2014.
With this increase in flights to China, Maldivian will have access to a larger share of the Chinese tourists visiting Maldives. Chinese tourism is the fastest growing market in the world and accounts for 30 percent of all visitors to the Maldives.
Maldivian is owned and operated by the state owned Island Aviation Services Ltd and is the leading domestic airline of the country. Maldivian was operating only domestic flights until 25th January 2008 when it commenced its first regional operations with the first flight to Trivandrum, India. In addition to daily flights to Trivandrum, the flag carrier now flies to Chennai – India and Dhaka – Bangladesh as well as China.
Maldivian continues to operate daily flights to 9 airports within the country. The carrier was formerly known as Island Aviation and was re-branded in August 2008.