Which Airport Opened Last? Ranking the Newest Airports in the Maldives
The most recent airport to open in the Maldives is not the one most travel guides name. It is Muli, in Meemu Atoll, which took its first scheduled commercial flight on 17 May 2025. Almost every published list of the newest airports in the Maldives still stops at 2020 or 2022, which leaves those lists two or three openings behind.
The same guides cannot agree on how many airports the country has either: totals between 12 and 20 all circulate in material published this year.
This page fixes the record. It gives a dated ledger of every opening since 2020, explains why the dates never match across sources, separates genuinely new Maldives airports from rebuilt terminals, and sets out what is actually under construction for 2027 and 2028.
The last six openings, in order
Six airports in the Maldives have entered scheduled service since the start of 2020. Ranked by the date a paying passenger could first fly there, the order runs as follows.
| # | Airport | IATA | Atoll | First scheduled service |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Muli | MUM | Meemu | 17 May 2025 |
| 2 | Faresmaathodaa | FMT | Gaafu Dhaalu | March 2023 |
| 3 | Madivaru | LMV | Lhaviyani | February 2022 |
| 4 | Hoarafushi | HRF | Haa Alifu | 26 November 2020 |
| 5 | Maavarulu | RUL | Gaafu Dhaalu | 4 July 2020 |
| 6 | Funadhoo | FND | Shaviyani | 3 February 2020 |
Three points fall out of that table immediately.
Muli holds the title, and it has held it for over a year. Faresmaathodaa is the opening that gets skipped most often, missing from several guides that were refreshed in 2026. And the two 2020 airports that older articles still call new, Hoarafushi and Maavarulu, now sit fourth and fifth in a list of six.
None of the six is a resort gateway in the way Velana or Dharavandhoo is. Every one of them exists to put an inhabited island within reach of a runway, under a policy that aims to bring every populated island within roughly 30 minutes of an airport. Tourism access follows from that policy; it is not the reason for it. That distinction explains why the newest airport in the country serves an atoll with almost no resort inventory.
Why published opening dates never agree
An airport in the Maldives does not open once. It opens four times, and each of those four dates ends up printed somewhere as the opening.
Land reclamation and construction milestones come first, and contractors quote them as the project advances. A regulatory test flight follows, usually flown by Maldivian with civil aviation officials aboard. Then the first scheduled commercial flight carries fare-paying passengers. Finally a presidential inauguration ceremony takes place, often days or weeks after commercial service began.
Muli demonstrates the spread cleanly. Its test flight landed on 25 April 2025. Maldivian began selling seats for 17 May 2025. President Mohamed Muizzu cut the ribbon on 20 May 2025. Three defensible dates, 25 days apart, and government press releases favour the last of them.
This page uses the first scheduled commercial flight throughout, because that is the only milestone a traveller can act on. A test flight you cannot book changes nothing about your trip.
The four-date problem also explains a pattern you will notice once you look for it. Aviation trade outlets tend to lead on the test flight, because that is the moment the story becomes newsworthy. General travel guides tend to copy the inauguration date from a government release. Airline schedules, the only source tied to a bookable seat, rarely get quoted at all.
Why the airport count itself is disputed
Ask how many airports there are in the Maldives and you will get a different number from almost every source. Every published total for Maldives airports rests on a slightly different definition of what counts. Counting facilities with scheduled commercial passenger flights, the working total in August 2026 is twenty: five international and fifteen domestic.
Four things drive the disagreement. Staleness accounts for most of it, since a list written in 2021 and lightly edited since will still show eighteen. Some counts include airports that have been inaugurated but have no airline serving them. Some treat Velana’s seaplane terminal, the busiest such operation in the world, as a separate facility. And the international category is genuinely fuzzy, because Villa International Airport at Maamigili and Hanimaadhoo both carry the label on the strength of regional routes to India and Sri Lanka rather than long-haul capability.
Two worked examples show how far the error can run. One well-known Maldives blog, refreshed in May 2026, states that the latest airport opened at the end of 2020. That single sentence is three openings out of date, and it sits on a page that ranks well for the query. Another list, updated in March 2026, counts nineteen in its own summary table, then leaves the newest airport out of the list underneath it. Our separate breakdown of how many airports the Maldives has sets out the full arithmetic and shows which facilities each competing total includes.
Muli Airport, Meemu Atoll: the current title holder
Muli gave Meemu Atoll its first airport of any kind. Before May 2025 the atoll was one of the last inhabited groups in the country with no runway inside the 30-minute target radius, which left roughly 8,000 residents dependent on sea transfer.
Maldivian opened the route with a single weekly Saturday service from Malé, block time about 35 minutes, and introductory one-way fares from MVR 1,377. By early 2026 the schedule had thickened and a second route had appeared, linking Muli directly to Gan International Airport in the far south. That second link matters more than the first, because it lets travellers move between the central and southern atolls without backtracking through the capital.
The airport’s own specifications are less settled than they should be. Published runway figures split between 1,200 metres and 1,500 metres depending on the source. Reported project costs range from MVR 221 million to MVR 540 million, and reclaimed area appears as both 14 and 36 hectares. Maldives Transport and Contracting Company built it under a contract first signed in 2014 and renewed in 2024 to force the project over the line. Where the numbers conflict, treat the longer runway figure with caution until the aeronautical publication settles it.
Eleven years between contract and first flight is the number worth carrying forward. It is the single best guide to how the announced dates in the pipeline section should be read.
For a visitor the practical picture is narrow. Meemu has very little resort inventory and its guesthouse sector is small. Muli is a decentralisation project that happens to be bookable, not a new resort corridor.
Faresmaathodaa: the 2023 opening most lists forgot
Faresmaathodaa, in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, entered service in March 2023 and remains missing from a striking number of current airport guides. The March 2026 list mentioned above omits it from its own count of the newest airports in the Maldives, then prints the wrong three-letter code for it in the table where it does appear.
The airport carries a 1,200 by 30 metre runway, built by MTCC for roughly USD 10 million, and handles night landings. Its terminal borrows from the odiharuge, the palm-thatch shelter traditionally used in Maldivian boatbuilding. It became the fourth airport inside Huvadhu, the enormous double atoll that Gaafu Alifu and Gaafu Dhaalu divide administratively.
It also supplies a useful lesson about announced dates. In early February 2023 the planning ministry named 15 February as the opening day, ten days ahead. The inauguration actually happened a month after that. Hold the example in mind when you reach the pipeline section below.
Madivaru, Lhaviyani: the opening that removed a daylight ceiling
Madivaru opened in February 2022 and changed something concrete for holidaymakers, which is more than most of this cohort can claim. Lhaviyani Atoll carries one of the heaviest concentrations of resort activity in the country, and until 2022 the only air route in ran by seaplane.
Seaplanes fly in daylight only. An international arrival after roughly half past three in the afternoon meant an unplanned night in Malé at the traveller’s own expense. Madivaru’s lit runway removed that ceiling for Lhaviyani: the flight from Velana takes about 25 minutes and operates after dark, so a late arrival can still reach the resort the same night.
Kuredu Holdings developed the airport for about USD 13 million on roughly three hectares of reclaimed lagoon, with Beijing Urban Construction Group as contractor and Island Aviation Services running it. The 1,200-metre runway parks four aircraft and the terminal holds an 80-seat lounge. At the inauguration on 18 February 2022 the government noted that every atoll north of Malé had by then been connected to an airport.
Madivaru is the clearest case in this group of a new runway that genuinely rewrites an itinerary. Judge the rest of the cohort against it rather than against each other.
Hoarafushi and Maavarulu: the 2020 pair still labelled new
Both airports opened in 2020, and guides published years later still describe them as the country’s newest. They are not, and the gap is now substantial.
Hoarafushi, in Haa Alifu Atoll, was inaugurated on 19 November 2020, with scheduled flights beginning a week later on 26 November. MTCC built it under a contract worth about MVR 198 million, delivering a 1,200-metre runway and an 8,635 square metre apron. It is the northernmost airport in the country, and it replaced an hour-long open-water crossing of Gallandhoo Kandu for anyone travelling to the far north through Hanimaadhoo.
Maavarulu came earlier the same year, opening on 1 July 2020 with commercial flights from 4 July. It cost far less than its peers, around MVR 57 million, and shares the standard 1,200-metre specification. It sits in Gaafu Dhaalu, not Gaafu Alifu, despite being filed under the wrong atoll by several aggregator sites and even by some Maldivian outlets. If a booking engine offers you Maavarulu for a Gaafu Alifu property, check the boat distance before you accept it.
Funadhoo, in Shaviyani Atoll, completes the 2020 trio, opening on 3 February. It picked up a meaningful upgrade at the turn of 2026, when the civil aviation authority approved night operations after an evening test flight touched down at half past seven. Shaviyani now offers same-day connection from late international arrivals, five years after the runway itself opened. Capability, not concrete, is what changed.
The rebuilds that changed more than the new openings did
Here is the uncomfortable truth about the last two years. None of the newest airports in the Maldives has altered a typical holiday itinerary since 2023. Three rebuilds have.
Hanimaadhoo: a full reconstruction, inaugurated November 2025
President Muizzu inaugurated the redeveloped Hanimaadhoo International Airport on 9 November 2025. The runway now measures 2,465 metres, and the A320 that carried the President to the ceremony became the largest aircraft ever to land there. The new terminal covers 10,380 square metres, handles a design capacity of 1.3 million passengers a year, and carries the first aerobridge anywhere in the Maldives outside Malé.
India’s JMC Projects built it for USD 136.6 million, financed through an EXIM Bank line of credit agreed in 2019. For travellers heading to Haa Dhaalu, Haa Alifu or northern Raa, this is the single largest capacity change in the northern network in a decade. It is not a new airport at all.
Maafaru: cleared for widebody aircraft in 2025
An Emirates Boeing 777 landed at Maafaru International Airport on 20 May 2025, the first widebody ever to touch down there, flown as part of the certification process. MTCC had extended the runway from 2.2 to 2.8 kilometres under a USD 27 million second phase. The airport reopened formally in July 2025, and its inaugural flight was a Maldivian A330-200.
Maafaru serves the luxury belt across Noonu, Raa and Baa, and it had already handled more than 250,000 passengers and 9,000 flights by mid-2025. Private jet traffic tells the story of its niche: 228 landings in 2022, 353 in 2023, and 98 movements in December 2024 alone.
Velana: the terminal move that catches transferring passengers
Velana’s new Terminal 1 opened on 26 July 2025, timed to the country’s 60th Independence Day. It cost USD 585 million, spans 78,000 square metres, and was built for 7.5 million passengers against an old terminal designed for one million.
The part that affects you is quieter. On 17 February 2026 all domestic flights moved into the former international building, now called Terminal 2. Allow 15 to 20 minutes on foot between the two terminals if you are connecting from a long-haul arrival to a domestic hop. Full detail sits in the Velana International Airport guide.
Four airport names that get booked wrong
The newest cohort has produced a genuine booking hazard. Four active airports now begin with the same two letters, and three of them appeared within five years of each other.
Maafaru (NMF) sits in Noonu, roughly 180 kilometres north of Malé. Madivaru (LMV) sits in Lhaviyani, about 140 kilometres north. Muli (MUM) sits in Meemu, about 140 kilometres south. Maavarulu (RUL) sits in Gaafu Dhaalu, some 430 kilometres south.
The trap is Madivaru and Muli. They lie almost the same distance from the capital in opposite directions, so a mistyped booking does not look obviously wrong on a confirmation email. The Maldives already forces travellers through one naming minefield in the deep south, covered in our guide to Kooddoo, Kadhdhoo and Kaadedhdhoo. This is the northern equivalent, and it is newer, so fewer booking agents have learned it yet.
Book by IATA code. Ask your resort to confirm the three-letter code in writing before you pay for a transfer.
What a new runway does to your transfer cost
A new airport near your atoll does not automatically give you a cheaper way in. Three things have to line up first.
Your resort has to use it. Properties hold standing arrangements with seaplane operators, and a runway 20 kilometres away changes nothing if the resort still meets guests at the seaplane terminal. Ask directly rather than assuming.
The boat leg has to be short. A domestic sector plus a 15-minute speedboat usually undercuts a seaplane over the same distance. A domestic sector plus a 90-minute open-water crossing often does not, once the resort adds its boat charge, and it costs you far more of the day.
The timing has to work. This is where the night-capable runways earn their keep. Madivaru, Faresmaathodaa, Funadhoo and the newest Maldives airports all take flights after dark, which can remove the cost of a forced overnight in Malé that a seaplane arrival would have made unavoidable.
One caution on published prices. Transfer figures quoted online conflict badly, and the same seaplane range appears as a one-way price on one site and a return price on another. Treat every figure you read, including ranges in our own transfers guide, as an order of magnitude, then confirm the actual number with your resort in writing.
What opens next: the 2026 to 2028 pipeline
The list of Maldives airports under construction is long, and the announced dates deserve scepticism. Faresmaathodaa slipped a month past a date announced ten days ahead. Muli took eleven years from first contract to first flight. Read what follows as direction of travel rather than a timetable.
| Project | Atoll | Status | Stated timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vilufushi | Thaa | Reclamation began September 2025, 1,800 m runway planned | 30 months |
| Milandhoo | Shaviyani | Construction began October 2025, reclamation finished May 2026 | 30 months |
| Makunudhoo | Haa Dhaalu | Reclamation complete, shore protection paused mid-2026 | Not restated |
| Mathiveri | Alifu Alifu | Agreement signed with MACL, plus 26.5 ha for community use | 30 months |
Vilufushi carries the most interesting specification. Its planned 1,800-metre runway would put it among the longest domestic strips in the country, well beyond the 1,200 metres that has become the standard for this generation of island airports.
Makunudhoo shows the other side of the programme. Contractors finished the reclamation, then paused shore protection work in mid-2026 after residents reported that construction vibrations were shaking their houses. The housing ministry ordered an assessment. Community and environmental friction of this kind has delayed Maldivian airport projects before, and the reclamation stage rather than the runway is usually where it bites.
Beyond those four, presidential decrees and tenders cover a long tail: Magoodhoo and Nilandhoo in Faafu, Alifushi and Fainu in Raa, Bilehfahi and Dhiguveli in Shaviyani, Thulhaadhoo in Baa, Dhidhdhoo in Haa Alifu, Vihafaru in Noonu, Maalhendhoo in Gaafu Alifu, and Guraidhoo in Thaa. Two further international airports appear in the decrees, at Thinadhoo in Gaafu Dhaalu and Villingili in Gaafu Alifu.
The state target runs to roughly 20 additional facilities, new builds and expansions combined. One structural change sits behind all of it. Regional Airports Company Limited, which used to run most of the domestic network, merged into Maldives Airports Company Limited during 2025, and the government continues to seek funding for several projects on the list.
Which of these actually changes your trip
Not every new runway is a new option for a holidaymaker. Sorted by practical effect:
Worth planning around. Hanimaadhoo, if you are heading to the far north; the aerobridge, the longer runway and the terminal capacity are all real. Madivaru, if you are booked in Lhaviyani and arriving late, because it removes the seaplane daylight cutoff. Maafaru, if you are flying privately or on a charter into Noonu.
Useful but situational. Funadhoo’s new night approval, if your Shaviyani resort transfer previously forced an overnight in Malé. Faresmaathodaa, if you are travelling to the southern rim of Huvadhu rather than through Kaadedhdhoo.
Not yet relevant to most visitors. Muli, despite being the newest, because Meemu’s resort and guesthouse inventory is thin. Maavarulu, unless your specific property names it as the transfer point. Vilufushi and Milandhoo, which sit years away from carrying passengers.
When the framing fails entirely. If your resort sits in North Malé, South Malé, South Ari or Vaavu, none of the last six openings touches your itinerary. You will transfer by speedboat or seaplane from Velana exactly as you would have in 2019, and no amount of new runway elsewhere changes that.
Frequently asked questions
Which is the newest airport in the Maldives right now? Muli Airport (MUM) in Meemu Atoll, which began scheduled commercial service on 17 May 2025 and was formally inaugurated on 20 May 2025. It has held the title for more than a year, and no new airport has entered service since.
How many airports does the Maldives have? Published figures for airports in the Maldives range from 12 to 20 because sources count differently. Some include airports with no airline serving them, some treat Velana’s seaplane terminal separately, and many are simply out of date. Counting only facilities with scheduled commercial flights, the working total is twenty, of which five are international.
Is Hanimaadhoo a new airport? No. Hanimaadhoo has operated for decades and gained international status in 2012. What opened on 9 November 2025 was a rebuilt runway and a new terminal building, which is why it does not appear in the opening ledger above.
Did any new airport open in the Maldives during 2026? No new airport entered scheduled service in 2026 as of August. The year’s aviation changes were operational rather than new-build: domestic flights moved to Velana’s Terminal 2 in February, and Funadhoo gained night-landing approval in January.
Do the newest airports make Maldives transfers cheaper? Sometimes, but not reliably. A domestic flight plus a short speedboat leg usually undercuts a seaplane over the same distance, and a lit runway can save the cost of an unplanned airport hotel. On some routes, though, the domestic sector plus a long boat crossing costs more than a direct seaplane, so compare the whole chain rather than the flight alone.
Which new airport is closest to a resort island? Madivaru, in practice. Several Lhaviyani resorts sit within a 10 to 25 minute speedboat ride of the runway, which is unusually tight for a domestic airport in the Maldives.
Can I fly into Muli and reach a resort the same day? Only with careful planning. Frequencies remain limited compared with established domestic routes, and Meemu has very few properties. Confirm the flight day with your resort before you book international flights around it.
Why do two sources give different opening dates for the same airport? Because four separate events all get reported as an opening: reclamation completion, the regulatory test flight, the first scheduled commercial flight, and the presidential inauguration. For Muli those dates span 25 days. Only the first scheduled commercial flight tells you when you could actually buy a ticket.
The short version
- Muli (MUM) in Meemu Atoll is the most recent opening, first scheduled flight 17 May 2025, and it has held that position for more than a year.
- Faresmaathodaa (2023) and Madivaru (2022) both came after the 2020 airports that older guides still call new, which leaves most published lists two or three openings behind.
- Opening dates conflict because reclamation, test flight, commercial launch and presidential ceremony are four different events; only the commercial launch is bookable.
- The changes that actually affected itineraries in 2025 and 2026 were rebuilds rather than new airports: Hanimaadhoo’s reconstruction, Maafaru’s widebody clearance and Velana’s domestic move to Terminal 2.
- Four airports now share a Ma or Mu opening, and Madivaru and Muli sit almost equidistant from Malé in opposite directions, so book by IATA code.
Before you book any domestic sector, confirm three things with your resort in writing: the IATA code of the arrival airport, the boat time from that runway to the island, and the latest domestic flight that still connects to your transfer. Then check our atoll-by-atoll airport list to see which runway actually serves your destination.
Sources for this article
Opening dates in this article follow the first scheduled commercial flight. Where sources conflict, the disagreement is stated in the text rather than resolved silently.
Government and official
- The President’s Office of the Republic of Maldives — inauguration records for Madivaru (18 February 2022), Hoarafushi (19 November 2020), Muli (20 May 2025) and Hanimaadhoo (9 November 2025); Vilufushi airport timeline statement, 23 September 2025.
- Ministry of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure — Faresmaathodaa completion and opening announcements, 2023.
- Visit Maldives — official record of the Hoarafushi inauguration as the country’s thirteenth domestic airport.
- Maldivian (Island Aviation Services) — route launch notices for Muli, May 2025, including schedule and fare detail.
Aviation and infrastructure reporting
- Public Service Media (PSM News) — Madivaru handover, Hoarafushi construction detail, Faresmaathodaa opening announcement, Muli inauguration, Maafaru widebody certification.
- The Edition — Maafaru first Boeing 777 landing and formal reopening, Makunudhoo airport contract, Muli inauguration, RACL merger into MACL.
- Corporate Maldives — Faresmaathodaa inauguration, Hanimaadhoo terminal specification, RACL statements on the national airport count and the project pipeline.
- Atoll Times, Aviators Maldives and Maldives Business Review — Maafaru certification process, Muli specifications and fares, Funadhoo night-operations approval.
- Travel Trade Journal, ANI and Swarajya — Hanimaadhoo redevelopment financing, runway length and terminal capacity.
- Xinhua and Aviation A2Z — Velana Terminal 1 specification, cost and inauguration.
Reference data
- Wikipedia airport records and the list of airports in the Maldives — IATA and ICAO codes, coordinates and atoll assignments, cross-checked against OurAirports, Great Circle Mapper and the IATA code directory.
Competitor pages checked for accuracy
- Dreaming of Maldives, Luxtripper, Maldives Magazine, Air Charter Service and Maldives Holiday Experts — reviewed August 2026. Errors identified in these pages are described in the text above.
Last verified: August 2026. Airport projects in the Maldives move slowly and announced dates slip routinely, so confirm any transfer detail with your resort before booking.
