EaseMyTrip Resumes Flight Bookings to Maldives

Travel agency EaseMyTrip, which suspended all flight bookings between India and Maldives due to political tensions has resumed flight bookings. Nishant Pitti, the founder of EaseMyTrip is the same person backing the bid placed by the Ajay Singh-Busy Bee consortium to acquire the grounded airline GoFirst.

EaseMyTrip: Why Maldives Bookings Were Suspended?

EaseMyTrip is a travel portal, which provides services related to flight and hotel bookings. In January, political tensions erupted between India and Maldives. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi simply shared some of the pictures from his Lakshadweep visit and urged Indians to travel to the beautiful islands.

For some unknown reasons, politicians from the current ruling government in Maldives got provoked and started abusing Indians using racial slurs. Eventually, the MPs were suspended, but this sparked a social media war between Indians and Maldivians.

Already, the current Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu had started the India-Out Campaign, in which he asked India to remove its defense forces from Maldives territory. Since the beginning of his term, Muizzu seems to favor China, which is an arc rival of India.

As a result, keeping the nation’s interest on top, the Founder of EaseMyTrip in the first half of January announced the suspension of all flight bookings to the Island nation. Founder Nishant Pitti shared on social media that although the portal will face some loss of business, it is committed to responsible service. EaseMyTrip started special offers for passengers willing to visit the Lakshadweep.

EaseMyTrip Resumes Maldives Bookings

Now, after a period of 4 months, it seems that the travel portal has opened the reservations for flights between Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM) and Male Velana International Airport (MLE). For other cities like Delhi & Bengaluru, EMT is providing transit flights via Mumbai as an option.

Just a few weeks ago, on May 2, Nishant Pitti once again confirmed that flight bookings to Maldives remain suspended. Giving a response to an incident, in which Maldivian radicals had assaulted Indian nationals, Pitti once again said that EMT prioritizes the national interest and the well-being of its customers.

The portal resumed flight bookings to Maldives on May 18. I have no idea what changed between May 2 and May 18. Secondly, the company resumed the service silently, unlike the suspension. There was no statement from EMT when it resumed the flight bookings.

In the fourth quarter, EaseMyTrip posted a net loss of Rs 15.75 crore. In the same quarter last fiscal, it posted a profit of Rs 31.15 crore. Despite posting a loss, the revenue increased by 40.7%.

Maldives Loss is Lakshadweep’s Gain

A photoshoot from PM Narendra Modi, clubbed with this controversy created a perfect recipe for travelers to visit Lakshadweep Islands. Currently, the island has a single airport, capable of handling a bigger aircraft. Agatti Airport has the ability to handle ATR-72 turboprop.

Before this saga, only Alliance Air was operating daily flights between Kochi and Agatti. No other airline was present.

However, after this controversy, Agatti Airport witnessed a huge increase in the number of weekly services. First of all, Alliance Air increased services from 7X to 10X weekly. IndiGo entered the Airport with the launch of Goa and Bengaluru flights. FLY91, the newest airline in India also connected Goa Mopa to Agatti.

On the other hand, passenger numbers between India and Maldives decreased. In Jan-Mar 2023, more than 56,000 passengers traveled between India and Maldives, but this figure reduced to just 34,847 in the same months of 2024.

Conclusion

EaseMyTrip, which suspended flights between India and Maldives in January 2024 has resumed flight bookings between both countries. The travel portal is taking bookings for flights between Mumbai and Male. The Founder of EMT earlier said that the flight suspension was under its nation-first policy.

What do you think about this resumption of Maldives bookings from EaseMyTrip? Discuss in the comment section.