Test flights to be conducted at Fares-Maathodaa airport
After a four-year-long wait, this is definitely going to be a milestone for the citizens of Fares-Maathodaa.
For a country like the Maldives, where islands are small and separated by the ocean, the development of a good transportation sector in the country has always been increasingly important. And while all the islands are reachable by speedboat or any other form of sea transportation, as time goes on, the need for airport development and air transfers have become increasingly important as well.
While there are several reasons why islands await the day an airport facilitates easier transportation, some of the most common reasons include ease of access to better healthcare in case of emergencies as well as the potential development of local tourism in islands as air transfer would make it easier for visitors to discover the hidden gems of the Maldives. While there are a few domestic airports and two international airports in the country so far, some airport development projects started as late as 2018 and are still under development.
One such airport is the Fares-Maathodaa airport. The plans to develop an airport which is to be developed for Fares-Maathodaa, located at Gaaf Dhaal Atoll, which involved plans to develop a 1.2-kilometre runway on 19.8 hectares of land for MVR 144 million. The project was assigned to the Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC) which is responsible for the majority of similar development projects in local islands.
While the project was initially set to be completed by the end of 2021, things did not go according to plan and by November 2022 MTCC announced on their official website that the project was 82 percent completed with 95 percent of the fire building and terminal building work being completed while 80 percecnt of the overall work was already completed.
And now, over four years since the start of this development project, the Fares-Maathoda airport is finally getting ready for the first test flights on the brand new airport.
After a four-year-long wait, this is definitely going to be a milestone for the citizens of Fares-Maathodaa as a new airport would not only be bringing new business to the island, but it will also facilitate new jobs as well as an easier mode of transportation for the citizens of the island as well as those who wish to visit Fares-Maathodaa.
