Russian charter airline Azur Air has resumed direct flights to the Maldives ahead of the tourist season.

Azur Air, which flies to the Maldives every year during the winter holiday season, began operations to the Maldives on Friday.

During the season, which begins in mid-November and lasts until March end, Azur Air will: 

• operate daily flights between Moscow and Male
• deploy a 336-seater Boeing 767 aircraft on the route

Russia, which accounted for the highest number of tourists to the Maldives before the Russia-Ukraine war, is still the second-largest tourist source market for the Maldives.

• As of Wednesday, 1,59,657 Russians had vacationed in the Maldives this year
• This accounts for 12.1% of the total 1.32 million tourist arrivals so far this year