Velana International Airport (VIA) has commenced operations of the newly developed Code F runway at the airport.

The newly developed runway at VIA was brought into operation on Thursday morning.

The airport held a special ceremony to commence the operations of the Code F runway, which was attended by Vice President Fasial Naseem.

The Vice President in his remarks at the ceremony noted that VIA was being developed in accordance with the master plan of the airport.

He highlighted some of the operational details of the new runway, fuel farm, passenger terminals, as well as the seaplane terminal at the airport, and noted that the airport's operations and services ran uninterrupted, despite the tremendous development project.

Moreover, VP Naseem stated described the airport as the main economic hub of the Maldives and noted that it was one of the state's most valuable assets.

With the opening of the new runway, the number of planes landing and departing the main international airport will increase from eight to 20 per hour, which will resolve flight delays by reducing the time required to vacate the runway.

The new runway at VIA is 3,400 meters long and 65 meters wide. The value of the development project was MVR 2.3 billion.

The work of the new terminal was carried out by China’s Beijing Urban Construction Group (BUCG).

The first flight to land on the new runway was an Emirates aircraft that landed at 7:20am on Thursday. The aircraft was greeted with a water salute.

With the operationalization of the new runway, the old runway would be used as a taxiway. The last flight to take off from the old runway was a flight of Turkish Airlines. The final takeoff was at 11:07pm on Wednesday night. The old runway saw 60 years of service.