Male Airport Guide: Seaplanes, Lagoons and a New Runway
Male Airport, officially Velana International, fills almost an entire island in the Maldives. Discover its new runway, terminals, seaplane base and routes.
By The Aviation Hub
6 min read
Updated October 20, 2026 
Male Airport, officially Velana International Airport, is the front door to the Maldives. It occupies almost all of Hulhule Island, a strip of coral and reclaimed land just across the water from the capital, Male. Nearly every tourist bound for the country’s resort islands lands here, then transfers by speedboat, seaplane or domestic flight. A new runway, terminal and seaplane base have transformed the airport in the last few years.
Male Airport at a Glance
The airport carries the IATA code MLE and the ICAO code VRMM. It lies about 1 mile (2 km) north east of central Male, separated from the capital by a narrow channel. At 2 m (6 ft) above sea level it is barely higher than the surrounding lagoon. One asphalt runway, 18/36, serves the field, alongside an international terminal, a domestic terminal and a seaplane terminal.
Male Airport handles roughly 5 million passengers a year, driven overwhelmingly by tourism. The state airline Maldivian, the seaplane operator Trans Maldivian Airways and the leisure carrier BeOnd all use it as their hub. The airport is run by Maldives Airports Company Limited, which is wholly owned by the government. Schedules and transfer information are on the airport’s official website.
How the Maldives Got Its Airport
Hulhule Airport opened on 19 October 1960 on what was then an inhabited island. Its first runway was made of slotted steel sheets, and the first aircraft to land was a Royal New Zealand Air Force Bristol Freighter. Air Ceylon flew the first commercial service, an Avro 748, in April 1962.
Residents of Male built a new asphalt runway, opened by Ibrahim Nasir, then prime minister and later president, on 12 April 1966. As tourism took off, the field was relaunched as Male International Airport on 11 November 1981. It was renamed Ibrahim Nasir International Airport in 2011, then Velana International Airport on 1 January 2017, after the Nasir family’s house name.
In 2010 a consortium of India’s GMR Group and Malaysia Airports won a 25 year concession. The government declared the deal void in late 2012, and GMR handed the airport back that December. Chinese contractors later built the new runway that opened fully in 2022.
Runways at Male Airport
Runway 18/36 is 3,400 m (11,155 ft) long and 60 m wide, with an asphalt surface. It was built on reclaimed land beside the old 3,200 m runway and inaugurated in 2018, but it served as a taxiway until it became fully operational in 2022. The extra width and length allow the largest wide bodies to operate with ease.
The impact on capacity at Male Airport was dramatic. The airport can now handle around 21 flights an hour, up from eight, and the gap between landings fell from about 15 minutes to three. Both ends of the runway meet the sea, and there is no margin for error on an island this narrow. In 1995 an Air Maldives Dornier 228 ran off the runway, struck the seawall and ended upside down in the lagoon. There were no deaths.
Four water runways in the lagoon serve seaplanes. Because of nearby restricted airspace, one is used only for takeoffs and another only for landings.
Terminals and Airlines
A new passenger terminal opened at Male Airport in July 2025, inaugurated by President Mohamed Muizzu. It covers more than 78,000 square metres and is designed for 7.5 million passengers a year, compared with about one million for the old building. It cost roughly US$600 million. The domestic terminal handles Maldivian’s flights to the outer atolls, while the seaplane terminal opened on 6 October 2022 with 42 resort lounges.
The international line up is dominated by Gulf carriers. Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad link their hubs several times a day, and Turkish Airlines connects Istanbul. Singapore Airlines, SriLankan, Malaysia Airlines and IndiGo provide Asian links, and British Airways flies to London Heathrow. Trans Maldivian Airways flies a large fleet of de Havilland Canada Twin Otter floatplanes, and Maldivian flies Dash 8 turboprops on domestic routes.
Routes and Destinations
The Gulf hubs carry the largest share of European visitors to Male Airport. Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi act as gateways for travellers from Britain, Germany, Italy and beyond, while Istanbul offers a fourth one stop option. Colombo has long been one of the busiest direct routes, with several airlines flying it daily.
India is now a huge source market, and IndiGo serves several cities including Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai. Moscow, Frankfurt, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are other important links, and European leisure carriers add seasonal flights. London Heathrow is among the longest nonstop routes. The peak season runs from December to April, when the dry northeast monsoon brings calm seas, and Christmas and New Year are the busiest weeks of all.
Getting to and from Male Airport
Getting to and from Male Airport is unusual, because most visitors never set foot in the capital. Resort representatives meet guests in arrivals and escort them to speedboats at the airport jetties or to the seaplane terminal on the eastern side of the island. Domestic flights continue to atolls further away.
For Male itself, the Sinamale Bridge, opened in 2018, carries buses, taxis and motorbikes across the channel in a few minutes. The public ferry from the airport jetty takes around ten minutes and is the cheapest option. Taxis are inexpensive by Maldivian standards. Hulhumale, the reclaimed island to the north, is linked by road and has many guesthouses, which makes it a sensible base for early flights.
Spotting and Photography
Few airports offer such a colourful backdrop as Male Airport. The southern edge of Hulhumale, close to the northern end of the runway, gives views of arrivals and departures over turquoise water. The Sinamale Bridge and the Male waterfront offer more distant views across the channel.
The seaplanes are the real show. Twin Otters taxi, take off and land throughout the day, and departing passengers get close views from the seaplane lounges. Light is strong and almost overhead at midday, so early morning and late afternoon give better results. Respect security on Hulhule, avoid photographing military or government facilities, and ask before photographing local people.
What Comes Next
The building programme of the last decade has largely delivered. The new runway, seaplane terminal and passenger terminal give the airport headroom for years. A larger cargo terminal and expanded fuel storage, with an underground hydrant system, are part of the same upgrade plan.
The challenge now is financial and environmental. Debts taken on for the projects are significant, and rising sea levels pose a long term threat to every low island in the country. Tourism demand remains strong, however, and Male Airport is heading for continued growth as new resorts open across the atolls. See how it compares with other island airports on our Airports of the World map.
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