Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) has revealed the airport activity at Velana International Airport (VIA) recorded significant progress during 2021, following a heavy decline in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As per the statistics of MACL, over 1.4 million international passengers and over 300,000 domestic passengers used VIA in 2021. MACL noted this is significant progress towards achieving the pre-COVID-19 activity levels in 2019, when 2 million international passengers and 600,000 domestic passengers were recorded.
Furthermore, MACL revealed while 55,000 tonnes of cargo were imported through VIA in 2019, this figure stood at 30,000 tonnes last year. Meanwhile, 9,000 tonnes of cargo were exported last year, compared to 13,000 tonnes in 2019.
The biggest indicator in the improvement of airport activity was the flight movements recorded during the year. VIA landed more than 25,000 international flights, which is very close to the 27,000 international flights landed in 2019. VIA also recorded 23,000 domestic flights last year, compared to 35,000 domestic flights in 2019.
VIA currently has direct flight connections to 26 countries, which is an improvement compared to the 19 direct connections established in 2019. However, the total number of destinations connected to VIA was at 41 last year, compared to 43 in 2019.