Island Aviations gets a 50-seat plane

Last 18 September2008, Island Aviation Services’ airline division newly rebranded Maldivian, has procured a new Dash-8 50-seat plane for their services.

The new “Maldivian” airplane took off from Cairns, Australia with four Maldivians onboard on 11 October and arrived in Maldives last Tuesday afternoon. According to the company, the new plane, purchased from Germany’s Aircraft Asset Management for US$110 million, is the only plane in their fleet that is emblazoned with the company’s rebranded “Maldivian” company name logo and art decal.

Once the new plane comes into service, the number of daily flights to Trivandrum, India will be increase to two flights and IAS has also decided to increase the number of daily flights to Sri Lanka. There is now a fleet of 3 prop airplanes along 2 Dash-8 with 26 seats.

www.airports.com.mv

Maldives September Central atolls report

A group of 8 italian surfers just came back from a trip and send me a report. Some surfers might be interested to know that there are less surfers in fall than summer and spring. It's easy to understand why. Most travelling surfers in Maldives are from Europe, which is increasingly true as the Euro gets stronger against the dollar. And fall in Europe is the best surfing time so a majority of surfers is keen to travel around Europe. Another point is that September in Maldives was ramazan time (10 days ahead next year) and local surfers, who usually surf in the late afternoon, can't really fasten and surf at the same time. That's why local surfers have been away from some lineups like Malé or Muli that month.

Check out this :

Sept13: short session at Malè break, heavy left 1.5 mt,3 locals.
Sept14: Last Stop glassy 1.5/2 mt and few waves at Foxy 1.5 mt sets, tubes shallow inside. (Just 3 other surfers at Foxy))
Sept15 and 4: Muli outside ,1.5 /2 mt perfect and long walls ,light wind, no people.
Sept16 : Hadigilla morning session 1 mt /1.5, almost glassy, few long waves but fun.
Sept17: check Mikado no waves we arrive 16.00 pm at the Machine ,small and a little windy, short session
Sept18 : Machine N wind 1 mt swell getting better
Sept19: Machine 1.5 mt glassy morning and bigger in the afternoon
Sept20 : Machine 1.5 morning and 2.mt sets in the afternoon,big tubes, great session
Sept21 ; Machine perfect morning (four hours session) 1.5 /2mt sets glassy,1,5 in the afternoon
Sept22: Machine last session , glassy 1.5 mt sets.



Rifu was a good guide, giving the right advice on spots and current, the food was very good , the Cook has talent and made cakes too, the crew was ok and the guys on the Dony too.

Just one thing : we had to tell the captain to wake up earlier in the morning because he moved the boat around 7/7.30 to go to the spots,we realised he had many beers those nights cause of ramadam!, but then he was ok, Rifu tolld him to move earlier.

Anyway best trip in Maldives , good waves, no other people around that's the most important thing to keep.

Photos : Giuseppe Arioni - ©Risky Point surf team