Maafaru International Airport has officially begun operations.

The operations began on Sunday morning, and the commercial operations were officially launched at a ceremony held in the evening.

Maldivian, the country’s national airline, announced one-way ticket fares to Maafaru on Saturday; which begins at MVR 750.

Funded by Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD, the airport development was contracted to Tuff Infrastructure Pvt Ltd. While the airport’s 2,200 metres long and 40 metres wide, it has the facilities to cater A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft.

The airport will be managed and maintained by Maldivian.

While various accusations were raised against Tuff Pvt Ltd over misconduct -including winning the bid by questionable methods, handing over parts of the project to subcontractors, failure to compensate the subcontractors for their work, and acquiring unjust millions with deceptive means- these are currently being probed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

The country's fourth international airport was initially set to open in September, but was postponed to December 1.