Dubai: Qatar Airways has threatened to cancel its services to Maldives following planned moves by the private airport operator of Male International Airport to raise handling fees by 51 per cent.
The Doha-based airline chief executive, Akbar Al Baker, said late yesterday in a statement that the airline is "dismayed" to hear of planned moves that will "significantly impact operations" and "threaten the future of its services to the holiday islands".
Strongly reacting to this, Al Baker said the planned increases were "totally unreasonable".
My message to the Maldives authorities is to think again, think rationally and think about the future prosperity of your tourism industry. These steps may have not been thought through seriously by the airport operator and I urge them to think again," he said, adding that the Maldives economy is wholly based on tourism.
"If we or any other major player withdraws services because of these unwarranted and draconian measures, it will be the people of the Maldives who will lose out, impacting their livelihoods as they rely heavily on the tourism industry," said Al Baker.
Qatar Airways has been flying to the Maldives for more than 10 years and currently operates twice-daily flights between Doha and the Maldives.
