A Sri Lankan news outlet has reported that Maldivian national carrier 'Maldivian' has canceled flights to Colombo International Airport - Ratmalana (CIAR) within a week after launching flights between the two destinations.
'Ceylon Today' cited reliable sources to report that Maldivian, the first to land as the first international regional flight operations between its main hub, Velana Airport, was called off within 96 hours as there were no passengers from the Maldives nor from Ratmalana to the Maldives.
The news outlet reported that the Sri Lankan Government incurred a loss of around Rs 6 million (315 thousand Rufiya) spent on the exorbitant launching ceremony held last Sunday.
It also said that the news outlet believes that some of the top officials have had suggested this route without even assessing whether this route is marketable or not.
Meanwhile, Maldivian tweeted earlier confirming that it had in fact halted flight to CIAR. The airline said that as mentioned in the inauguration ceremony, flights between the two destinations would resume after Ramadan.
The Airlines Deputy Managing Director Aishath Jennifer further explained the situation on Twitter saying that the CIAR Inauguration ceremony was held on the First Day of the Summer Schedule and that the airline plans to resume after Ramazan.
She added that the IATA Summer schedule - begins on the last Sunday of March
