The Bulgarian airline GullivAir will operate a charter flight from Male (the capital of the Maldives) to Sofia today. The flight is scheduled for 9:00 PM local time (6:00 PM Bulgarian time). The plane is expected to land at 3:40 a.m., Kiril Stamov, manager of the tour operator "Phanagoria Travel", which organized the charter, told TravelNews.
This flight will bring home 326 Bulgarian tourists who were stranded in the Maldives and other destinations in the region after flights through the Middle East were suspended.
"The flight is full and will not be paid for by the state,” said Stamov. The plane is an A330-203 with 326 seats on board.
Over 120 Bulgarian tourists who had transfers through Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah have been stranded in the Maldives for a week now. The situation was the same in Sri Lanka, Bali and Thailand. Flights from major hubs in the Middle East were blocked after the start of the military conflict. Airports and airspace in the UAE and Qatar were closed.