066 - Male, Maldives
SHOW NOTES - episode 066: Male, Maldives 
Interview with General Manager of Maldive Air Taxi Service MAT travel information about Maldives Music by Geoff Smith with thegeoffsmith.
ABOUT:Welcome to the Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, which is an island nation consisting of a group of atolls in the Indian Ocean.
Male is the Capital city and is located on Male Island in the Kaafu Atoll. A commercial harbor is located in the Island. It is the heart of all commercial activities in the country. Many government buildings and agencies are located on the waterfront. Male International Airport is on adjacent Hulhule Island which includes a seaplane base of Maldive Air Taxi Service for internal transportation.
The entire land area of the Maldives is 298 km2 (115 mi2) and is about 1.5 times the size of Washington DC.
Click here for a graphic image of a map of Male or here to download a printable PDF version.
For many centuries the Maldives relied on fishing. Now, however, other industries notably tourism have given the Maldives a significant boost in GDP.
The Maldives, 1,190 coral islands, forming an archipelago of 26 major atolls. Stretches 820 kilometers north to south and 120 kilometers east to west. One of the main drivers has been the opening up of internal transport with air transport services of Maldives Air Taxi.
MUST FLY: The Maldivian Air Taxi has been in operation since 1993. The airline services resorts in the Maldive Islands with a fleet of 22 Twin Otter seaplanes depending on the season. On this show, we interview the General Manager of Maldives Air Taxi - or MAT - based out of Male International Airport.
Whilst the focus of the General Manager, Mr Fayzi, is to continue the operation of a successful airline, the real success and major link to infrastructure and economic improvement to the Maldives to the outlying islands is contributed by the operations of this airline. Whilst these twin engine aircraft bounce and zip around the Maldivian air space served by a crew of three (2 pilots and 1 cabin) you have to experience a flight on one to really see the Maldives and .
MALDIVIAN AIR TAXI (PTE) LTD
Male International Airport
P.O. Box 2023, Male
Tel: +960 315201
Email: sales@mat.com.mv website is www.mat.com.mv
Click here for a Google Earth Movie of PodAsia travel podcast flight from the Starwood resort called "W" to Male.
On this show we play music from our great friend Geoff Smith from The Geoff Smith.
How do I download and Listen to a Podcast? It’s SIMPLE! You can listen by clicking [here] or download and listen later. Just click below to listen or right click the icon and save target as… to your music folder on your computer.
January 26th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Welcome back, Matthew! We were starting to get a bit worried about you over here at ThirtyThousandFeet.com, but it sounds like you’re back in the saddle as we say! Hearing the family cover for you was a treat - buddding podders no doubt! At least they’ve got a “master” to learn from, plus the podstation hardware doesn’t hurt. Anyway, I’d be happy to hear from them again from time to time.
February 1st, 2007 at 4:38 am
Hi Matthew,
Welcome back and hope you had a speedy recovery. Just wanted to let you know that iTunes seems to be having a trouble with your newest podcast (Maldives 22/1/07). I’m getting a bad url msg from itunes, even though I see the file posted on podasia.net.
February 3rd, 2007 at 7:47 am
Thanks for heads up Andrew. iTunes can be a bit fickle but I hope I’ve fixed it now. Keep listening!
Cheers
Matthew Holden
February 11th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
Have had some problems with feeds of late. Sorry to all but we use a plug-in called PodPress and the latest verion had some errors in it. Still not fixed completely but the PodAsia Travel Channel is now back on iTunes.
Cheers
Matthew
PS - more shows coming out soon