Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) has said that with the newly developed runway at Velana International Airport (VIA) now being used as a taxiway, the airport is now capable of landing a plane every two minutes.

MACL said that the new runway is temporarily being used as a taxiway starting today. They said that it has improved airport operations with eight planes being able to use the runway every hour and 16 planes during peak hours.

It also reduces the time the airplanes have to queue in the air for landing, according to the MACL and the time to clear a plane has been reduced from ten minutes to two minutes along with the takeoff and landing time.

MACL said that although the runway is currently being used as a taxiway, it will be used as a runway in the third quarter of this year.

The new runway is developed to international standards to facilitate the largest airplanes. It is 34,000 meters long and 65 meters wide. Although the runway was opened on 5 September 2018, it has been unused so far.

The development of the new runway was contracted to Beijing Urban Construction Group (BUCG) with a loan of USD 373 million from the Chinese Exim Bank.