Majority of airport

Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) has stated that majority of the equipment used in Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA) currently are out of date.

In a special interview to Sun yesterday, MACL’s Managing Director Bandhu Ibrahim Saleem said that the company has started investing to renew the equipment in the airport.

“We’re trying to get busses and high loaders, tugs for the airplanes, a new ambulift and container dollies. We have to acquire these. The flights keep increasing. Especially for every high season,” Bandhu Saleem said.

He said that the equipment have not been renewed for over four to five years.

“Some equipment are about 10 to 15 years old. 15 percent are past 15 years. Cost of maintaining these have become enormous. They are now beyond usable,” the MD said.

He said that one of his primary target after assuming his position recently was to renew the equipment.

“Then we can handle nine airplanes simultaneously, excluding domestic. Four wide bodied planes and five narrow bodied planes, we can handle them all at once,” Saleem said.

He said that increase in number of airplanes owned by local companies, accompanied by the opening of new domestic airports have dramatically increased the domestic traffic to the airport.

“The number of airports are increasing. With the opening of a number of new airports, we have to increase the Airport Company’s efficiency,” MD Saleem said.

He said that he has taken up a number of new initiative for the company and that the it will take sometime for them to bear results.