The Maldives travel experience has been upgraded.
Male airport, the gateway to the Maldives, was a bit grim. A brand new terminal, sat next to the original, has been a long time coming. Finally, after seven years of development, it’s now open, and all airlines will switch to it over the next three months. BA and Virgin switch this weekend.
What’s changing?
If you’ve been lucky enough to holiday in the Maldives, then you’ll know that the airport terminal was like going back in time. The main building was completed in 1981, and the terminal is cramped and lacking amenities. It’s generally a poor start and end to what is usually a luxury travel experience.
The last time we flew out of the Maldives with Qatar, we didn’t even get lounge access, despite being in business class. Instead, we sat in a grim Burger King.
Male is a busy airport. At peak, it has two hundred and thirty flights in or out per day, not including over six hundred seaplane flights. Most flights have a premium cabin, and it’s well served by ME airlines. British Airways and Virgin have daily flights from London.
The airport owners were not oblivious to the state of the terminal; however, ownership passed from the public to the private sector, then back again. Two years after the airport was sold to a private group, it was taken back by the government.
Building a new terminal
It was then a slow process of building a new terminal. The foundations were completed way back in 2019, but as of last month, the new terminal is operational. It sits next to the original terminal, slightly set back from the runway.
- The new terminal will be able to handle 7.5 million passengers each year
- The building is over 78,000 square metres.
- There are 47 check-in counters, plus self-serve facilities.
- There are six departure gates.
- A new executive terminal has been built, akin to Aether at Manchester. The cost for this is $202.84 per person.
The food and beverage facilities in the new terminal are not clear. The airport website contains information on the old terminal, which had just three food outlets after security.
Given that all airlines will move to the new terminal in the next few months, I’m unsure why they haven’t updated the website. The new terminal is a 10x upgrade on what they had, and you would think that they would shout about it.
What’s changing for BA and Virgin
Both airlines will relocate to the new terminal. For BA, that’s Friday, 24th October, and for Virgin, it’s the 25th of October. Both airlines will move their inbound and outbound flights.
For those with status or flying in premium cabins, the lounge you’ll use will be the new Koveli lounge. This looks to be a really nice space, and the lounge does accept paid entry. It’s also big, with space for 270 passengers and has multiple rooms and spaces.
The great thing about Male airport is that it’s right next to the seaplane terminal and the speedboat port. That means it’s an easy transfer ,no matter what route you need to take to your hotel.
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