bruinflyer

I'd like to talk about the seaplane transfer required to get from MLE to Ja Manafaru (resort / island) in the Maldives. I don't even know (and cannot determine from the web or from calling the Ja Manafaru resort, unfortunately) if it's airline affiliated/charter/etc.

Maldives is also a weird location... do we at FT consider it Asia? India? Oceana?

Starting off:

• Who operates the flights?
• What's the plane?
• Can I track it using any modern site?
• Any protips for people who've flow that route? E.g I've seen literature saying 25kg total luggage (hand+check), which is a bit light given family baggage... is that a practical limit or just scare tactics? (FYI flying *A gold status + business class on my carrier allows 32+32+5+5 per person, almost 3x the seaplane amount, as a reference point).

oenophilist

I believe it fits under Asia for the Destinations.

Maldives is very resort-specific. Most resorts use an air-taxi service, and I believe there are two different air taxi companies serving Maldives. Since different islands use different taxis, only the resort will know.

I flew to Rangali island on an air-taxi, and there are limits to the luggage, I don't recall specifically. They are per person. The air taxis sometimes make multiple stops, so you might actually go to a couple islands first before you arrive at your island. They are all seaplanes, so you take off and land on the water. It is pretty fun!

Not sure about tracking or other issues. The seaplane terminal is separate from the main terminal, on the other side of the airport island. Usually your resort will arrange a shuttle.

Edited to add: It looks like the two competing companies merged in 2013. See here and here.

bruinflyer

Thanks!

Davvidd

An update. It is a twin Otter on floats. Normally they take about 14 to 16 passengers per flight and it would stop at two resorts usually. They rarely stop at 3 resorts. The baggage is stacked in the bag of the cabin. The flights are about 20 to 40 minutes.
There are two companies now. Maldivian Seaplane and Maldives Air Taxi. Both operate the Twin Otter on floats. Also there are lots of domestic airports now and they operate round the clock and even in the night too. The aircraft is the Bombardier Dash 8.

Catweazle

Regarding tracking the flight on modern websites, do you mean in terms of keeping track of your own flights, or watching it 'live' in the air?

If for your own records, then Flight Memory has the option of inputting the latitude and longitude coordinates for smaller and more obscure airports that the system doesn't immediately recognise.

I flew from Airuya in PNG to a remote village via helicopter, and it let me record the flight data.

If that helps...

bruinflyer

I wanted to watch it 'live' in the air using something like FlightAware

Catweazle

Ah well, disregard my aforementioned comment then!

Kagehitokiri

now 1 company, majority owned by blackstone

Davvidd

Actually there are two seaplane companies now. Trans Maldivian Airline now bought by a Chinese company and Maldives Seaplanes owned by the national airline Maldivian. Both operate Twin Otter on floats as seaplanes while Maldivian also operates Bombardier Dash 8 as land based planes. Depending on the resort, one can fly a seaplane or a land based plane.

Kagehitokiri

80% owned by bain, 20% owned by china

interesting
maldivian.aero/flying-with-us/our-fleet.html