MACL to construct 300-meter apron in the airport

The Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) has decided to construct a new, 300-meter long apron at Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA).

Managing Director of MACL Bandhu Ibrahim Saleem told Sun last week in an interview, that the purpose of the new apron is to increase the parking area for planes at the airport.

He said that the new apron will be 300-meter long and 75-meter wide.

“The purpose of extending the apron is to facilitate parking for planes. There is no parking space for planes on the current apron. Only the planes that do not fly and need parking will be taken to the new apron. That way, the airport will become efficient. Currently we experience a delay of about 15 minutes in air traffic. That’s why we decided to construct a new runway as well,” he said.

He said that efforts are ongoing to find a party to design the extension of the terminal.

“Extending the terminal is the only way to increase income, and that’s also how we can expand our services with the arrival of new planes. Our target is to establish a terminal that can serve 1.8 million passengers by 2015,” he said.

He said that along with the extension of the terminal, five aerobridges will also be constructed to facilitate passenger boarding.

The estimated cost of the three-year project to develop the airport is $350 million to $380 million.