Maldives is now opening its borders for travelers from South Asia, including India and the announcement was made by the Maldeivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. The Maldivian President said that borders will be opened from July 15 and his government will also keep a tab on the COVID pandemic situation.

Erstwhile Go Air and now Go First Airlines is planning to operate flights from Male, capital of Maldives to Delhi, Bengaluru, and Mumbai from July 15^th onwards. As per the roaster of Go First, the flight biweekly on Thursdays and Sundays for 20 days, followed by an increase in frequency to four days a week, adding Wednesday and Saturday from August 4. Go First will gradually increase the flights to daily from September 3.

As for the timings, from Delhi, the Go First flight will fly at 10.15 AM and land at Male International Airport at 1:45 PM in the afternoon. The flight will return on the dame day starting at 2:45 PM from Male and land in Delhi at 7:15 PM in the evening. From Mumbai and Bengaluru, the flights will land at Male Airport at 12:o5 PM and 1:05 PM respectively.

“In partial modification of the circular dated 26-06-2020, the competent authority has further extended the validity of the circular issued on the subject cited above regarding scheduled international commercial passenger service to/from India till 2359 hours IST of 31st July 2021. The restriction shall not apply to international all-cargo operations and flights specially approved by the DGCA,” a notification, signed by Sunil Kumar, the joint director general of the civil aviation regulator, read.

“However, international scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the competent authority on a case basis,” the notification started further.

Flight services, both domestic and international, were initially closed in March last year when the first lockdown was announced to curb the spread of cases of coronavirus disease. However, in May, carriers were allowed to resume services on domestic routes though the ban on international flights remained and continues to this day.

Even as the ban on international flights continues, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Monday that when it possible for international travellers to visit India, the first 500,000 would be given visas free of cost. This was one of the eight schemes announced by Sitharaman to boost the Covid-19 hit economy, with special emphasis on health and tourism.