Mayor: Scheduled flight operations will bring economic progress, council ready to cooperate

Mayor of Addu City, Abdulla Sodiq has said that starting scheduled flight operations in Gan International Airport would provide a considerable boost to the economy of southern atolls, and pledged the full cooperation of Addu City Council to the development project.

Mayor Sodiq (Soabe) made the comment to press after the ceremony held this Thursday to inaugurate direct scheduled flight operations between Colombo and Gan International Airport by SriLankan Airlines.

“Even from a business perspective, travel expense is high. It’s expensive to go to Male’ and then travel abroad. It’s expensive to bring in tourists as well. This brings an end to the difficulties and provides the opportunity to travel to parts of the world directly from this airport,” said Soabe.

He said that a lot of people considered Gan International Airport the economic hub and doorway to economic prosperity of the southern atolls.

He said a lot of people believed the southern atolls would see no economic progress unless scheduled international flight operations began in Gan.

Mayor Soabe said SriLankan’s operations in Gan provided a great opportunity to develop the economy of the southern atolls. And that businesses based in the southern atolls would benefit from it.

He said that the start of scheduled international flight operations would be especially beneficial to the guesthouse business. He said that the southern atolls had plenty of prime locations to build guesthouses in, and asked that the government provide assistance to small and medium enterprises.

“Guesthouse business can be greatly expanded. Government should facilitate this. There are prime locations. Loans should be awarded to people who want to build guesthouses in their homes. There are people who find it difficult to obtain huge loans to start up their businesses.

There needs to be low interest loans,” said Soabe.

“The economy will progress greatly due to scheduled flight operations. Not just guesthouses. There are other businesses that can be value added and run. Economic Ministry and Tourism Ministry needs to facilitate this. We, the council are ready to cooperate,” he said.

Soabe said that additional business areas such as diving MICE tourism, handicraft and souvenir products, cafes and restaurants, and hotel schools need to be developed in the southern atolls.

“Development of the airport, maintenance of scheduled flight operations, and cargo and passengers are co-related to increase in bed capacity and development of businesses.”