News Desk
MALE’ — The newly modernised Hanimaadhoo International Airport cannot accommodate large, wide-body aircraft required for long-haul routes from destinations such as China, the Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation, Mohamed Ameen, announced during a parliamentary session. The disclosure tempers local economic expectations for the northern transport hub, which underwent an extensive redevelopment project initiated under the previous administration and was officially completed late last year.
The original project briefs and official development blueprints for the Hanimaadhoo international expansion had consistently specified that the airfield’s geometric footprint was optimized for narrow-body aircraft operations. Aviation experts note that even the country’s primary gateway, Velana International Airport (VIA) in Malé, was plagued by similar logistical constraints until the recent completion of its new code-F runway and modernized terminal infrastructure, which finally unlocked scheduled long-haul wide-body operations for the capital.
The structural limitations of the facility were brought to light when Abdul Ghafoor Moosa, an opposition Maldivian Democratic Party lawmaker representing the Hanimaadhoo constituency, questioned the government on why the national airline had not established direct connections between the northern atolls and major Asian markets. Responding to the inquiry, Minister Ameen, a former commercial pilot, clarified that the multi-million-dollar facility was fundamentally designed and engineered strictly for narrow-body, smaller commercial aircraft, such as the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 families. Consequently, navigating heavy long-haul flights directly from distant Chinese hubs remains a physical impossibility under the current runway specification
The minister noted that the existing runway infrastructure and ground services remain wholly inadequate for heavier transcontinental airliners like the Airbus A330 or Boeing 777, rendering direct long-haul flights technically impossible under current conditions.
The redevelopment of Hanimaadhoo International Airport was funded through a 136 million US dollar credit line from the Exim Bank of India, with construction commencing in January 2023 and the facility opening in November 2025.
While the project successfully introduced a new 2.46 kilometre runway, a modern passenger terminal capable of handling over one million travellers annually, and a dedicated cargo hub, the underlying engineering parameters never accounted for wide-body operations.
Mr Ameen stated that if the state intends to pivot the northern region toward long-range international markets, the airport would require an entirely new cycle of costly redevelopment and structural modifications.
