Private jet from Bengaluru to the Maldives

No departure city on our site is closer to the Maldives than Bengaluru. Kempegowda International Airport is 1,101 km from Malé, and the flight takes between 1 h 43 min and 1 h 53 min, depending on the aircraft. That makes a Friday-to-Sunday trip or a short celebration on an island practical, with no fuel stop for any jet in our table.

A Praetor 600 with up to 12 seats costs from €16,000 one way for the whole aircraft, the lowest price on any route we publish to the Maldives. Maldives Private Jet is a broker: we request aircraft and prices from operators with an Air Operator Certificate and send you the options to choose from.

Private jet prices from Bengaluru to Malé

Here are five aircraft priced from Kempegowda (BLR) to Velana International Airport. The Praetor 600 and Challenger 350 are super midsize jets; the Legacy 650, Falcon 7X and Gulfstream G650 offer more seats and larger cabins. On a flight of under two hours all five go nonstop, and the fastest is just 10 minutes quicker than the slowest.

All prices cover the whole aircraft for one leg; the quote adds passenger taxes and airport charges line by line. Divided among the passengers, a Praetor 600 at €16,000 costs €1,300 each with all 12 seats used and €4,000 each for a group of four. A Gulfstream G650 with 16 passengers works out at €2,000 per person.

The short distance changes the logic of the return. Positioning from Bengaluru to Malé and back takes less than four hours of flying in total, so the quote often has the jet go home empty after dropping you and come back on the last day; keeping it and its crew in the Maldives adds parking and hotel costs for every night of the stay. Those empty sectors are sometimes offered to other travellers. Other routes are listed under charter prices, and our price calculator gives an estimate for your own trip.

What each aircraft costs from Bengaluru

Nine aircraft types are priced below from Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru, each one way for the whole cabin, with a last column showing the cost per seat.

Kempegowda is close enough for the Praetor 600 to reach Malé without a stop, and at €16,000 it is the cheapest jet in the list. The largest cabin, a Global 7500 for up to 17 people, costs €38,000 from Bengaluru. Twelve passengers sharing the Praetor 600 pay €1,300 each.

Price per person by group size

Below, the Bengaluru fares for three aircraft are split per traveller, from a couple to every seat taken.

A party of ten flying back to Bengaluru pays US$9,600 in Maldivian charges, made up of US$480 tax and US$480 development fee for each private jet passenger.

Return flight and Empty Leg prices

Most Bengaluru clients book the flight home at the same time; each return price below is two one-way flights.

An empty Praetor 600 between Bengaluru and Malé might cost roughly €6,000 to €11,000, our estimate of 30 to 60% below the charter fare. Such a flight cannot be counted on for particular dates; the Empty Legs page explains how to receive alerts. When the jet waits in the Maldives for your return to India, parking and crew costs are added, and in peak season it may have to park outside Malé.

Departing from Bengaluru: Kempegowda or HAL

Bengaluru has two airports that business jets know well, and they play different roles.

Unlike Delhi and Mumbai, Kempegowda has no stand-alone terminal for private jets. Private passengers and crew pass through the airline terminal, where a handling agent escorts them through the formalities and then out to the aircraft. The drive from the centre to Devanahalli depends heavily on traffic, so plan it generously, especially at peak hours. Send us all passengers' names and passport details when you confirm: the operator needs them for the flight documents and the landing permit in the Maldives.

The aircraft may come from an Indian operator, which needs DGCA certification for international flights endorsed on its permit, or from an operator based abroad with its own permits for the flight.

The shortest route to the islands

At 1,101 km the flight is shorter than many domestic routes within India, and range never decides the choice of aircraft. Cabin height, seats and luggage do. The Maldives runs on UTC+5 and India on UTC+5:30, both without seasonal clock changes, so the islands are 30 minutes behind Bengaluru: a G650 leaving at 09:00 India time lands in Malé at 10:13 local time.

Which airport in the Maldives

From Bengaluru the northern airports are closer than Malé, and the price follows. The table prices the Legacy 650 to the four Maldivian airports that accept business jets, each without a stop:

For Noonu, Baa and Raa resorts, Maafaru saves a long seaplane flight from Malé: the Baa and Raa islands are about 15 minutes from it by seaplane. Hanimaadhoo is the airport for the far north, and Gan for Addu Atoll in the south. Everyone else lands at Velana, where passengers go by car from the aircraft to the VIP lounge for immigration; speedboats leave for the Malé atolls round the clock (20-60 minutes), seaplanes for Ari, Lhaviyani and the other central atolls in daylight. Our airport transfer guide explains the connections.

Documents and taxes for a flight from Bengaluru

Indian citizens, like visitors of every other nationality, apply for nothing in advance: the 30-day tourist visa is granted at the airport on landing. What immigration checks:

• the passport: machine-readable, valid for one month or more, and not a passport with extended validity;
• the IMUGA declaration, completed online in the 96 hours before you land;
• a paid resort or hotel booking, confirmed return travel and enough money to cover the stay.

Taxes and airport charges on the Indian side are listed in the quote. On the flight home, every foreign passenger of a private jet owes the Maldives two charges of US$480 each, a departure tax and an airport development fee; children under two pay no departure tax. The Green Tax of US$12 per person and day is added to the resort or hotel bill.

Dogs may not be brought into the Maldives. A cat travels with a health certificate from an authorised vet and an import permit, and the authorities must be informed at least 24 hours before it lands; its return to India falls under Indian import rules. The rest of the customs rules, including alcohol and pork, are summarised under know the rules.

Best time to fly from Bengaluru

The north-east monsoon brings the drier months to the Maldives from December to April; the south-west monsoon makes May to November wetter, while temperatures hold at 25-31 °C all year. From Bengaluru, demand gathers around the Dasara and Diwali holidays in the autumn, at Christmas and New Year, and over long weekends, which the short flight turns into proper island breaks.

The New Year weeks are the busiest for private jets at Velana, and landing permits and parking are hard to obtain then, so send those requests early. On other dates, if a suitable aircraft is nearby, a departure about 4 hours after confirmation is often possible.

Saving on a short route

• A smaller cabin. At €16,000 the Praetor 600 costs about half as much as the G650, and on this route it is only 10 minutes slower.
• Empty Legs. Aircraft heading back to India after a Maldives drop-off are sold as Empty Legs, typically 30-60 % below the full charter price; the operator decides the date.
• Jet Sharing. For two or three travellers, Jet Sharing means paying per seat, and payment is due only when the group is full.

Give us your dates, number of passengers and resort, and we will reply with aircraft and prices from Bengaluru:

Best months to fly from Bengaluru to the Maldives

Bengaluru travellers head away most in January, October and December, and the table shows those months beside the Maldivian monsoons.

India keeps one time all year, so a Gulfstream G650 leaving Kempegowda by 14:17 makes a same-day seaplane in any month. After that hour, choose a resort reached by speedboat, since boats also run at night.

Other departure points near Bengaluru

Mumbai and Delhi, Phuket on the far side of the Bay of Bengal and Muscat in Oman complete the list of nearby departure cities, each shown with its lowest guide price to Malé:

Bengaluru to the Maldives: frequent questions

• • How much is a private jet from Bengaluru to the Maldives?

  • For the whole aircraft one way: from €16,000 in a Praetor 600, €27,000 in a Legacy 650 and €33,000 in a Gulfstream G650, plus taxes and airport charges shown in the quote.

• • How long does the flight take?

  • 1 h 43 min in a G650, 1 h 46 min in a Falcon 7X and 1 h 53 min in a Praetor 600 or Challenger 350. None of them needs a stop.

• • Can we fly from HAL Airport instead of Kempegowda?

  • HAL is used mainly for military, government and domestic general aviation flights. International business flights, including those to the Maldives, normally leave from Kempegowda International, which is open around the clock with customs and immigration.

• • Is a weekend trip realistic?

  • Yes. Leave Bengaluru by early afternoon on Friday and you can reach a seaplane resort the same day; resorts near Malé are reachable by speedboat even late in the evening.

• • Does the jet wait for us in the Maldives?

  • It can, with parking and crew hotel costs for each night. On such a short route we also price the jet flying back to India and returning for you, which often costs less for a longer stay.

• • How much luggage fits on the seaplane?

  • Each guest may check in 20 kg and carry 5 kg on board with Trans Maldivian Airways; every additional kilo costs US$5 plus taxes.

• • What do Indian passport holders need for entry?

  • A passport valid for at least one month, the online IMUGA declaration and proof of a paid booking and return travel. The tourist visa, for up to 30 days, is issued on arrival.