The Maldives’ sea-to-air cargo service has shipped 96 containers of goods abroad by air in October alone.
This service, designed to facilitate the transit of goods arriving by sea and departing by air, has seen significant demand since its launch in May this year. Turkish Airlines was the first to partner with Maldives Ports Limited (MPL) in March, with the initial shipment dispatched in May.
MPL’s CEO Mohamed Wajeeh Ismail said the service has received a lot of positive responses since its launch, and the demand for the service has increased significantly over recent months.
According to Wajeeh, 96 containers (418 tonnes of cargo / 34,946 packages) were shipped abroad by air in October alone. Currently, the main exports are Bangladeshi-made garments. While a large percentage of Bangladesh’s garment industry has been exported to European countries by air until now, most of the goods have gone to different countries through India and Sri Lanka, he said. Wajeeh mentioned that neighboring countries involved in similar logistics services have expressed concern about the Maldives’ expansion in this area.
Wajeeh stated that as part of efforts to further expand the service in the country and gain customer confidence, a team from MPL recently visited Chittagong, Bangladesh along with Inner Maldives owner Mohamed Firag and held discussions with garment factory owners in Bangladesh.
“One of the important things that we learned from these discussions is that if handled effectively, over 400 containers could be shipped to the Maldives and then dispatched globally by air,” he said.
Wajeeh said discussions are underway with shipping lines to bring the containers to Maldives and they are working to provide the necessary machinery and equipment to provide customers with satisfactory services.