VIA receives Airport Health Accreditation from ACI

The national airport of Maldives, Velana International Airport (VIA) has received Airport Health Accreditation from Airport Council International (ACI).

The receipt of the ACI Airport Health Accreditation was announced by Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL), which manages VIA, in a statement on Tuesday.

“After consistent measures in our fight against COVID-19, we are happy to announce that Velana International Airport (VIA) has received the much awaited “Airport Health Accreditation” by Airport Council International (ACI),” announced MACL in its statement.

VIA is the second airport in the Asia Pacific Region to receive ACI Airport Health Accreditation.

The certificate was awarded through a special letter sent by ACI World’s Director General Luis Felipe de Oliveira to MACL’s CEO and MD Gordon Stewart on Monday.

He congratulated Stewart and the team at MACL on the achievement.

MACL said that the VIA achieved the certification by completing a tight assessment by ACI in alignment with the guidelines for health measures established by ICAO, CART, EASA, and ACI recovery guidance, including ACI EUROPE’s Guidelines for a Healthy Passenger Experience at Airports.

ACI’s Airport Health Accreditation program assists airports by assessing new health measures and procedures introduced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in accordance with ICAO Council Aviation Recovery Task Force recommendations.

Areas of assessment for accreditation include cleaning and disinfection, physical distancing (where feasible and practical), staff protection, physical layout, passenger communications and passenger facilities.

“This achievement proves that health and safety measures we are practicing at VIA are in alignment with international best practices ensuring health and safety of our passengers, employees and other airport stakeholders,” said Stewart.

He said that safety is the utmost priority at VIA.

“Safety is our utmost priority and we never compromise on any of our set standards. To have successfully passed the strict audit by ACI demonstrates that our airport is a safe place to visit. This achievement will no doubt build our passenger confidence and also this would be a boost to destination Maldives,” he said.

Stewart credited the achievement to the consistent efforts of the team at MACL and stakeholders, and thanked all those who were involved in helping achieve the accreditation.