Ahmed Maumoon.
Credit: Special Arrangement
Maldives-based Manta Air on Wednesday announced the launch of its direct flight from Bengaluru to Dhaalu Airport in Maldives from January 2024. The first flight is expected to take off on January 26. Since it commenced commercial operations in 2019, the airline has operated as a domestic carrier and is now taking to the international skies, starting with India. Ahead of the launch, the airline's deputy chief executive officer Ahmed Maumoon sat down with DH’s Lavpreet Kaur to elaborate on the rationale behind this move, expectations from the Bengaluru market and plans for expansion.
How was Manta Air born?
When you actually take a flight from any international airport to Maldives, you arrive at the Male International Airport, after which you have options like a speedboat or wheel plane to get to small airports, hotels or resorts. However, tourists could not make advance bookings for these transfer services, which caused inconvenience to them but also hotel business was suffering. To fix this issue, Manta Air was launched as a fixed-schedule carrier, for which tourists could also make advanced bookings.
As a regional carrier solving a specific problem, what brings you to India and why Bengaluru?
Post-pandemic tourism in Maldives took off in a way it was never expected. Regional travel grew manifold and short-haul travel (within 2-3 hours) from Maldives also took off at a rapid pace, particularly traffic from India. About 240,000 outbound (Indian) tourists came to the Maldives in 2022. This calendar, we’ve already logged 177,000 outbound tourists headed to the Maldives. India represented 11% and 14% respectively of the total tourist arrivals in these 2 years and, in that, about 30% were from Bengaluru the past 18 months and 40% in 2022 alone. With the transition you would have to make in Male, the journey could go as long as nine hours, creating a challenge for passengers and also hotels seeking to improve their occupancy. Given there is demand and Dhaalu Atoll has 8-9 properties with as many as 2,400 beds, the launch of this flight would benefit both.
What will the frequency of your flight be and what is the load factor you’re targeting from Bengaluru?
We are launching three days a week - ideally Sunday, Monday and Friday. The flight from Bengaluru will take off early in the morning around 6.45 am and the flight back will start late around 1 am Maldives time. The load factor can vary, but we are looking at 60 seats per flight from Bengaluru.
What does the configuration look like on your ATR 72-600 for these flights?
We have reconfigured the standard 72-seater ATR to a 64-seater with two classes - 48 seats in comfort class with a 32-inch seat pitch and 16 in sapphire class with a 36-inch seat pitch. This is comfortable for a 3 hour 10 minute kind of a range.
Do you also plan to expand to other Indian cities? Also, tell us about your global expansion plans.
We will be launching operations in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi in the next year. We are targeting the South Indian market first given the type of aircraft we have and its range. Delhi and Mumbai are also on the cards and we will launch operations there as we have suitable aircraft. Work is ongoing for the expansion of the Dhaalu Airport which should be complete by the end of 2025 after which it can support longer-range aircraft like the Airbus A321s.
Currently our immediate focus is on testing these services in India and the massive demand we have within the Maldives. We are open to exploring chartered operations to China, Thailand or even far south to Dubai. But no other expansion plans.
What does your current fleet look like?
Currently, we operate a total of 21 aircraft - three ATR72-600s along with 17 seaplanes and one wheel plane. We will be adding 4-5 more aircraft in 2024.
Are you marketing this as a premium offering and how will your tickets be priced?
About 35-40% of the travellers to Maldives from India are honeymoon travellers and another 30% are families. Within this segment, there are a lot of middle income-range travellers. So we have worked with various hotels at Dhaalu Atoll and come up with packages of 3 and 4 days combined with our international ticket, by which the travellers save at least $300-400 in their travel. Our ticket pricing is in the range of $550-$575 as against the traditional route via Male (using regional connectivity) would cost a passenger $800-900.