AGENTS can once again book
direct flights to the Maldives
as ATO Tours has signed a
new charter agreement with SAA to
operate once-weekly non-stop flights
to the southern Maldives, landing
at Gan International Airport. Flights
will commence on April 21 and have
been planned until January 31.
In December and January the
flights were chartered and packaged
for a limited time with great
success.
The new flight will be operated with
an Airbus A340-300 in a two-class
configuration with lie-flat businessclass seats. Flights will depart
OR Tambo International Airport at
23h50 on Sundays, arriving in Gan
on Mondays at 09h40. The return
flight will depart Gan on Saturdays
at 13h00, arriving in Johannesburg
at 17h00.
“Currently, a round trip to
anywhere in the Maldives takes
around 40 hours because the only
way to get there is via the Gulf,”
says ATO md, Keith Gow. The SAAoperated flights will be just under
seven hours.
Like the flights at the end of
2018, the direct flight has been
packaged for seven nights with the
three-star Equator Village starting
at R12 990, four-star Canareef from
R15 990 and five-star Shangri-La
Villingili Resort & Spa from
R29 990. Prices are per
person sharing and include
airfare, taxes, transfers,
resort accommodation,
breakfast daily and the
option to upgrade to either
breakfast and dinner; full
board; breakfast, dinner and
drinks; or all-inclusive.
Bookings are now entirely
through ATO with Keith
saying this process has now
been consolidated under
one company. “Initially,
Starlight Holidays was
assisting us because we
did not have a bookings
infrastructure in South
Africa. We have since set up
offices in Johannesburg and
Cape Town and agents can
book directly through us.”
He said Starlight had been
a great partner to work with.
Keith says ATO is also
in the advanced stages of
planning connections to the
rest of the Maldives, Sri
Lanka and southern India.
