Budget airline Flydubai has slashed its fares across a number of routes, including the Maldives.

The airline announced on Wednesday that it is offering up to 50 percent discount on economy and business class seats for flights from Dubai to more than 80 destinations, including Prague, Maldives, Russia, Georgia, Thailand, India and Ukraine.

Flyers have until September 27 to avail the discount fares, which are for trips between from now until October 27, 2018.

“The earlier you book, the greater the discount,” the carrier said, in an announcement.

Fludubai began its operations to the Maldives in 2013, and operates five times a week between Dubai’s Terminal 2 and the Maldives main Velana International Airport.

The low-cost carrier complements Emirates’ daily flights to the Maldives from Dubai, which has become one of the most popular transit points amongst tourists visiting the Maldives from far corners of the world, especially Europe.

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.

Middle East has also become an emerging source market for the Maldives. The market has, however, observed major declines in the first half of the year, with the latest being a nine percent drop in visitor numbers in July. Almost all major Middle Eastern markets posted declines in July, including Saudi Arabia (down 1.6 percent), Qatar (down 93.7 percent) and Egypt (down 23.9 percent).

Photo: Airlinereporter.com