Reviewed this route before so please pardon me on this. :-)
Took my pending 4 days off from work and went to Colombo in Sri Lanka, which is about an hour flight from Male (Maldives). While scanning the airfares on my favorite website, I saw the round trip (MLE - CMB - MLE) fare was only US$212, I took the chance and booked it.
From the resort where I am working, took an hour speedboat to Male Airport (Velana International Airport). When I arrived at 730AM, first, coffee. :) FYI, this costs US$4.50. Not bad.
After my coffee break, I took a quick stroll and noticed that there are some small developments within the airport area, soon The Maldives welcomes its first KFC, Pizza Hut and Costa Coffee….
View of the city of Male prior to buying a ferry ticket.
As my flight is not until 340PM and since I had done my online check - in, I took a public ferry to Male city. Here is a photo of a public park near a very beautiful mosque.
Back to the airport, check - in was quick and fast. There was no line at the counter. In less than 10 minutes, I was done with both immigration and security check.
Welcome signage to the DF.
The only lounge inside the terminal. :)
As the airport was small, I was not in a hurry to get into my gate so I took some photos of the parked planes ready for departures to Paris, Beijing, Bangkok, Istanbul and Rome.
Some souvenir items at the DF.
My gate, G3.
Pre take-off tradition of checking the lav out. Was clean and nice smelling.
IFE which was of decent size, some reading materials, tray, etc…
Due to runway maintenance, we were delayed for about 1.5 hours so the crew served the light snacks to all of us.
