Villa International Airport Maamigili , also known as Villa-Maamigili Airport, is an airport in the

Maldives Maldives (, ; dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, translit=Dhivehi Raajje, ), officially the Republic of Maldives ( dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, translit=Dhivehi Raajjeyge Jumhooriyyaa, label=none, ), is an archipelag ...

. It is located on the island of Maamigili in

Alif Dhaal Atoll Alifu Dhaalu Atoll (also known as Southern Ari Atoll or Ari Atholhu Dhekunuburi) is an administrative division of the Maldives. The separation of Ari Atoll (formerly Alifu Atoll) on March 1, 1984, into a Northern and a Southern section formed ...

. The airport was developed by Maldivian business tycoon

Qasim Ibrahim Qasim Ibrahim (born February 10, 1951), also known as Buruma Qasim is a Maldivian politician, business magnate and philanthropist. As the chairman and founder of the Villa Group, he is one of the country's wealthiest businessmen. Ibrahim ra ...

, who grew up in Maamigili, as a project to develop the infrastructure and facilities of the island. He has started a project to build new runways so planes from abroad visiting his resorts will be able to land directly on this airport, instead of having to stop off at Malé airport. It was developed and operated by his company,

Villa Group The Villa Group is one of the largest business entities in the Maldives. The holding company Villa Shipping and Trading Company Pvt. Ltd is a private conglomerate which is amongst the largest private business in the Maldives with major operation ...

, on land leased from the government. The airport opened up direct transportation facilities to two of their flagship resorts located on adjacent islands. The opening of the airport coincided with Villa's entry into the aviation industry, the founding of a new airline Villa Air (operating as ''Flyme''), to operate from the airport. The airport opened on October 1, 2011 as a domestic airport. In 2013, it was upgraded to international airport standards. Villa Airport was downgraded to domestic status by the government in August 2014 because of security concerns, but was reinstated as an international airport 23 days later. In January 2015, Flyme started seaplane operations out of Villa Airport.

Facilities

The airport resides at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...

of above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ari ...

. It has one

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...

designated 09/27 with a

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...

surface measuring .

Airlines and destinations

References

External links

Maamigili Domestic Airport
at Maldivian eGov * {{authority control Airports in the Maldives Airports established in 2011 2011 establishments in the Maldives