Addu City, Maldives – Managing Director of Addu International Airport (AIA), Qais Naseer said in an interview with Public Service Media (PSM), that due to the decrease in flight operations to the airport, it is predicted to generation 80% less in annual revenue compared to other years
He explained that arrivals, even from the national airline Maldivian, 70% of the arrivals used to be tourists, but after the 2 largest resorts in Addu closed due to Covid-19, the airpor’s revenue has decreased by a great extent with little to no tourists coming Addu’s way.
AIA was established in 2011, with a 30% stake by Kasa Holdings, 10% stake by both State Trading Organization Plc (STO) and Maldives Airports Company Ltd (MACL) , and a 50% stake by the Maldivian government. Earlier this year, STO sold all their shares to the government, increasing the governments stake to 60%. MACL is also reportedly planning to sell their shares.
In the annual reports of 2019 released by the Auditor Generals Office this August, AIA suffered a loss of MVR 60 Million. Which is an improvement from the MVR 84.5 Million loss they suffered in 2018.
AIA’s main source of revenue is aircraft refueling, with MVR 40 Million receipted from Airline and Jet refueling making up 61.5% of the airport’s total revenue of MVR 65 Million in 2019.
Maldivian, which used to operate 6 daily flights to AIA, now only flies to the airport once a day. With a very low number of private jets landing at the airport and the only scheduled international flights to the airport by Sri Lankan Airlines cancelled without a resumption date, AIA is expected to suffer an even greater loss in 2020.
AIA said that, they can only overcome their annual losses by upgrading infrastructure at the airport and when tourism in the area improves. The Maldivian government has said that there are plans to invest $17 Million into the airport, made possible by a line of credit from the Indian bank Exim Bank.
