President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has said that The Hanimaadhoo Airport will be expanded by 700 meters to the new runway.

Speaking to the people of Hanimaadhoo island as part of the President's visit to the Atoll today, the President said that the construction of Hanimaadhoo Airport is a very good project and the work on the project will be carried out in full swing.

"But I believe that the airport will become feasible by bringing tourism specially and other economies to the region. It is our policy to open more resorts in this atoll, especially in this zone, in the Northern Development Zone, with various tourism products. With this, this airport will become a very busy airport," he said.

To achieve this, he said, the current project has to be carried out on the best scale and while 8,000 beds and other industries of tourism are being brought in, the 2,460-metre runway is not the best capacity for it.

"You have to make it to the best of your ability while making it. So while the airport is being built with a runway longer than that and is being constructed at double the cost, in reality, when the project was originally implemented during the previous government, the scale was reduced without much thought. I want to talk to the lender and try to find an effective solution. This means extending the runway and adding another 700 metres," he said.

The hanimaadhoo international airport development project was started on January 18 last year under a credit line signed between Exim Bank of India and the Government of Maldives in 2019 under which a new runway of 2.46 km and a terminal with a capacity to cater to 1.3 million passengers per annum are being constructed.

Meanwhile, a new apron has been built and put into use at Hanimaadhoo airport, where the 1,200 meters completed out of the newly constructed 2,460 meters of the new runway have been opened and put to use at the end of January.

Once the Hanimaadhoo International Airport is developed, airbus A320s and Boeing 737s used in international flights will be able to operate, according to the government.