Emirates has reported a record July for passenger traffic from the UK, with the Maldives amongst the most popular onward destinations.
More than 265,000 passengers flew with the carrier in July from six UK gateway airports; over 140,000 out of Heathrow and Gatwick, 48,000 from Manchester, 40,000 from Birmingham, 22,000 from Glasgow, and 12,000 from Newcastle.
Dubai was the most popular final destination for Emirates travellers flying from the UK in July, followed by onward destinations of Bangkok, Phuket, Mauritius, Maldives and Bali.
The airline’s record month comes as it celebrates its 30th year of operations in the UK as well as in the Maldives.
Emirates began its service to the Maldives in May 1987 using a single Boeing 727 aircraft. It now operates four times daily service to the Maldives from Dubai, with transit routes including neighbouring Sri Lanka, and uses Boeing 777-300s for its Male operations.
Emirates has become a major airline operating to the Maldives and has been serving for years as a preferred airline of tourists visiting the island nation from far corners of the world, especially Europe.
The latest figures by Emirates are in line with a recent study by TripAdvisor that ranked the Maldives fourth amongst the best value holiday destinations for British travellers during the summer. UK-based travel specialists Southall Travel has also found that the Maldives is amongst the most popular long haul holiday destinations for Brits.
Europe is the single biggest source market for the Maldives tourism industry with a share of over 50 percent of total arrivals. According to official figures, the European marked observed an year on year increase of 10.7 percent in the first half of this year, with arrivals increasing to 320,162 from 289,234.
Britain is a major European source market, as more than 100,000 British travellers visited the Maldives last year — a 9.8 percent increase from the year before. That growth has continued this year, as 51,737 Brits visited the Maldives in the first six months of the year — a 0.4 percent increase from the 51,536 in the same period of last year.