Since I’ve come across a few posts labelling the current Maldivian flights as Rescue flights, let me just clarify this for you. The flights that a being operated right now are not rescue flights and by definition they’re repatriation flights. 1/5

That is actually one of the reasons why the ticket price may be expensive. Repatriation flights are flights that are used to bring back stranded citizens back home and are usually Charted by the governments in short amount of time. Hence the tickets being expensive. 2/5

And if you don’t believe me you can check out the prices for the most recent repatriation flights by the UK which costed passengers $1k for the trip and the Australian flights from Peru which costed up to $5k. 3/5

On the other hand, rescue flights are flights which are used to bring stranded passengers from different countries due to an airline declaring bankruptcy or ceasing operations suddenly. 4/5

For these flights, there is something called the “Rescue Fare” where they are charged a discounted amount for the flight. This is not done by the government but by IATA member airlines if another member airline ceases operations leaving passengers stranded. 5/5