The Details

• Flight: Trans Maldivian Airways
• Aircraft: DHC-6-300 Twin Otter
• Seat: Row 1
• Route: W Maldives (WWW)-Male Velana International (MLE) Seaplane Terminal
• Distance: 35 miles
• Flight time: 42 minutes
• Departure: 3:04PM
• Arrival: 3:46PM

The Preflight

After a magical time at the W Maldives in their Fabulous Overwater Villa, it was time for my newly engaged fiancée and I to head home. Since our flight on Qatar Airways was leaving late in the evening, we were scheduled to leave the resort on their last scheduled seaplane flight. In addition, we were granted late check-out (2PM).

We made our way to the resort lobby at 2PM and while we checked out, the hotel staff loaded our bags onto the seaplane. There were about eight of us on the last flight out to Male and we all gathered at the seaplane dock where we were bid farewell by the staff.

They also handed out a pair of ear plugs and a hand wipe.

The Seat

Trans Maldivian Airways has 15 total seats onboard their Twin Otters arranged in a 1-2 configuration across five rows. We boarded from the rear of the aircraft and made our way to the very front of the cabin.

While pitch and width were incredibly tight, the aisle seat in the first row offered a great view of the flight deck. I didn’t want to intrude on the cockpit and kept my feet behind the line during the entire flight.

At each bulkhead there was also a small fan that kept the air circulating in the otherwise stuffy cabin.

Just before takeoff, the flight officer at the back of the aircraft made his way to the front of the floatplane to give a brief safety demonstration. He also informed us that face masks were mandatory at all times.

The Flight

Just before we pushed back, the first officer turned around from his seat upfront to announce that we would be making a brief stop at another resort (Diamonds Athuruga) to pick up three additional passengers on our way to Male.

We left the floatplane dock at 3:04PM and a very quick taxi before taking off.

The brief flight to Diamonds Athuruga took just seven minutes and we landed at their dock at 3:11PM.

Once we landed however, we had to wait about 10 minutes for the additional passengers to be boated over.

Soon we were off towards Male.

Male came into view around 20 minutes later and we began our final approach at 3:46 PM.

We landed at 3:47 PM local time and had a six minute taxi to the seaplane terminal.

Thanks for the ride!

Upon making our way onto land, we were greeted by W Maldives representatives and ushered onto the nicely air conditioned bus. Once our bags were loaded we were bused directly to the international terminal that was 10 minutes away.

Once we got to the international terminal, we had an personal W Maldives rep take our bags and escort us through the security check directly to the check-in counters.