DALLAS - Air Arabia (G9) has officially inaugurated its nonstop flights to the Maldives, making Male (MLE) the 85th destination regularly served by its Dubai-Sharjah (SHJ) base.

The low-cost carrier launched this route just three months earlier, in July, and will offer daily connections to the small island territory in the Indian Ocean, famous for its crystal-clear waters and paradise beaches, from October 27.

Adel Al Ali, CEO of G9, said, “The inaugural flight to the Maldives represents an exciting new chapter in our network expansion…with the addition of this new route, we reaffirm our commitment to provide affordable and value-driven air travel.”

Promoting the New Route with Connecting Flights

To promote this new 4:20h flight, G9 launched a worldwide price-drop campaign with enormous discounts on many of its connecting itineraries between Europe and Male via its hub in Sharjah.

Air Arabia is one of the few low-cost carriers worldwide that offers connecting itineraries to passengers. While this practice enhances the airline’s chances of attracting new passengers, it also significantly raises logistics costs in baggage transfer and increases the threat of incidents in case customers lose their connection after a delay.

Flight G991 between SHJ and MLE is scheduled to depart at 08:00, arriving 4:20h later in the Maldives at 13:20. The first services have been operated by Airbus A320ceo aircraft.

As of October 2024, the Air Arabia Group operates a fleet of 78 Airbus planes across all its subsidiaries. 48 of them; 39 A320s, 3 A321ceos and 6 A321neos, are based in Sharjah.