Maldives looks to shift seaplane terminal from main airport

Economic Minister Mohammed Saeed said on Saturday that it would be most beneficial to shift the seaplane terminal to Furanafushi to expand the aviation sector and establish more services in Hulhule, where the country's main airport is located.

At a meeting held in January to unveil the plan for the Velana International Airport development project, the government announced that the existing seaplane operations in Hulhule will be relocated to the Sheraton Full Moon Resort near the reclaimed suburb Hulhumale.

The Economic Ministry is currently in discussions with the resort to carry out the project.

Replying to a question on the feasibility of relocating the seaplane terminal, Saeed said:

"There are many countries where we are taking lessons from, especially in countries where tourism is growing unabated and developing countries. Even if the country is small, we have to move forward on that path," Saeed said.

"For example, we are learning from countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain and Qatar. These countries are trending in the world and these countries never stop saying that the airport expansion is complete”.

He said there were questions whether the existing seaplane terminal building would be feasible as it would be too large when the project was completed.

“Right now, the seaplane terminal is almost overrun,” Saeed said of the USD 55 million (MVR 848.1 million) Noovilu Seaplane Terminal.

The government had planned to turn the existing seaplane terminal into a private jet terminal.

Saeed said President Mohammed Muizzu wants to make jet services a separate industry in Maldives and the seaplane terminal should be moved to the island where Full Moon Resort is located.

"Moving [the seaplane terminal] to the Full Moon is something that needs to be done now. That's how it will be feasible," he said.

"Maldives has been slowly testing a model to expand the economy by expanding the airport. Thus the new runway was opened. The new runway was opened and it was feasible”.

The new passenger terminal is also under construction, he said, adding that the opening of the new terminal will increase the capacity of the airport.

"The President doesn't want to put a full stop there. Given its nature, the nature of tourism, travel, hospitality industry, this is always going to grow," he said.

All of that will be done in a way that will be most beneficial, he said.

"There is no official jet terminal in Maldives yet. So the President wants to [build] a jet terminal and officially launch the business in Maldives. With that, the capacity of the airport should be increased," Saeed said.

He said Maldivian domestic flights should also be expanded and the engineering services provided to aircraft should be modernised.

"... If not, they are going to Ceylon or another nearby country. Why should we give that opportunity to another country? So the President wants to provide these services in Maldives," he said.

There are many people in the country who have been educated in aviation.

He said the country has the world's largest commercial seaplane industry and considering the current landing, take-off, weather changes and the increase in airport traffic, the best way to do so for operational safety is to shift the seaplane terminal.

“Progress is being made by further expanding seaplane operations and relocating the existing terminal to make it economically viable,” he said.

"The [seaplane operations] will be moved to Full Moon and the current seaplane terminal is changing to a jet terminal”.

He said the seaplane terminal has the most modern facilities and it would not cost much to convert it to serve jets.

The area currently used as a seaplane runway will be dredged and a domestic terminal will be built there. The current domestic terminal area will be turned into an engineering service area.