China Eastern Airlines Corporation Limited, an
airline based in Shanghai, will operate
Shanghai-Maldives-Johannesburg flights starting
from April 27, as it further expands its
international network. The carrier will operate
four flights per week on the route using Airbus
A340-300 aircraft.
Day of ops A/C Type
Route STA STD
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday A340 PVG-MLE-JNB
0455LT 0605LT
Sunday A340 JNB-MLE-PVG
0050LT 0200LT
Wednesday A340 PVG-MLE-JNB
0455LT 0605LT
Thursday A340 JNB-MLE-PVG
0050LT 0200LT
China Eastern is a major Chinese airline operating
international, domestic and regional routes. Its
main bases are Shanghai Hongqiao Airport and
Shanghai Pudong International Airport.
This airline will open up the door for Chinese and
eastern tourists to travel easily to Maldives and
as well as traffic from South Africa.
Chinese outbound travel is based on a system
called Approved Destination Status (ADS).
According to this system, Chinese nationals can
travel to ADS countries only. The Maldives became
an ADS country at the end of 2002.
There has been a tremendous growth in the Chinese
market for the past four years to Maldives,
partly, due to the Approved Destination Status
(ADS) and also the new found freedom for Chinese
citizens to travel. After the Maldives became an
ADS country, the arrivals from China increased
tremendously.
However, in 2004 arrivals dropped tremendously
compared to the projections for 2005. But in 2006
there was an unprecedented growth of 127 percent
in comparison to 2005. Chinese tourists now
account for 4.4 percent of total tourist arrivals
to Maldives.
China Eastern’s local operation agent in the
Maldives is Inner Maldives Holidays.
For more information please contact:
Abdulla Ghiyas, Deputy Managing Director or
Ali Nifaz, Operations Manager
Inner Maldives Holidays
Tel: (960) 3326309.
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