With islands in 1190 islands located inside 26 separate coral atolls spread over 90,000 square miles of Indian Ocean, getting around the Maldive Islands speedily would not be possible without its local transport infrastructure.
In most countries of the world this would be called a bus service.
Here the local buses are sea planes. Fleets of Twin Otter aircraft all fitted with floats are used to inter connect the inhabited islands carrying tourists and essential perishable produce.
Two companies which despite their common ownership operate the separate services. They are:
Founded in 1989, the company originally called Hummingbird Island Helicopters, TMA is the oldest of the two and, in many ways, the most experienced Air transfer operator in the Maldives.
They initially operated a strictly helicopter fleet until the introduction of their first seaplanes in 1997. The transition to a ‘seaplane-only’ fleet was completed in January 1999.
The Maldivian Air Taxi company was founded in 1993. Together the two companies pioneered the use of aircraft to transport tourists to island based resorts. In doing so, it has made a significant contribution to the development of tourism to the Maldives, which in turn has resulted in major benefits to the national economy.
Earlier this year, both companies are acquired by Blackstone who now, despite their different liveries operate under the name Trans Maldivian Airways, and do so using 44 Twin Otters, three of them are brand new DHC-6-400 type