The government is working to resume the course at Addu Flying School by December 2021.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih met with students of the Asian Academy of Aeronautics (AAA) on Sunday, where he addressed the longstanding issues faced by students enrolled at the academy.

The course, which was interrupted due to several issues facing the school, is to be resumed by the end of the year.

Expressing gratitude for the incumbent administration’s prompt response to a letter submitted on October 7, the students revealed attempts to resolve the issue through all available means, to no avail.

The president was briefed on the challenges and financial burdens as well as the failure to provide refunds that faced students following the disruption to the course.

Listening to these concerns, the president revealed the decision to form a joint venture company with Island Aviation and Maldivian National University (MNU) to operate a flying school in the Maldives, of which the operations are to be handled by a professional European flying school on behalf of the joint venture company.

President Solih added that the government is working tirelessly to make sure all of the necessities are met to resume the course during December.

Students were assured that the government will provide top-up loans as well as other eases, to reduce their financial burdens.

The government had provided some relief to students including the deferment of loan payments for six months after completion of the course as well as transferring of study loans earned by students for this programme from the Bank of Maldives, to the Ministry of Higher Education.

Minister of Finance Ibrahim Ameer, Minister of Higher Education Dr Ibrahim Hassan, and Senior Officials of the President’s Office, Island Aviation and Civil Aviation were in attendance at the meeting.