Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Mohamed Ameen has said reducing domestic flight fares in the Maldives remains difficult due to high operating costs and limited passenger numbers.
Responding to a question in Parliament, Minister Ameen said domestic ticket prices are not currently set above the cost of operating flights. He said the ATR aircraft used for domestic routes involve significant expenses, making fare reductions challenging under the existing operating model.
Minister Ameen also said local fares were not increased despite higher oil prices linked to the conflict in the Middle East. He noted that airline ticket prices had risen internationally following the increase in fuel costs, but the government had worked to manage the added expenses without passing them on to local passengers.
According to the Minister, the main constraint in reducing fares is the limited volume of passengers using domestic air transport in the Maldives. He said air transport requires higher passenger numbers to operate more efficiently, and that the country’s market size makes it difficult to lower ticket prices.
While fares for local passengers were not increased after the rise in oil prices, Maldivian raised ticket prices for tourists in April.
Minister Ameen said the current fare structure reflects the broader challenges of operating domestic air transport across the Maldives, where demand is spread across multiple islands and routes.
