Economic Minister, Fayyaz Ismail has said that the Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) is fully capable of managing the operations of a seaplane terminal at Velana International Airport.

In a tweet sent out today, Minister Fayyaz said that Velana International was taken back from the GMR Company because MACL is capable of handling the airport operations. And so, running a small seaplane terminal will not be difficult and the agreements with MACL.

The seaplane terminal worth USD 55 million funded by MACL was at a time discussed to be given to the largest seaplane operators in the Maldives, TMA.

However, if an agreement is reached as such, MACL will lose a large portion of potential business. The Audit Report prepared by the Auditor General’s Office on regarding the seaplane terminal upon request by the Financial Committee of the Parliament, say that if the terminal is given to TMA below the market value, MACL will lose USD 44 million annually.

And so case has been filed with the Anti-Corruption Commission with a plea to stop the agreement with allegations of corruption against the MACL management to give the terminal to TMA, a company with a major foreign investment.