Do we need to form a joint venture and lease airport for 50 years or more?

At Male International Airport , Maldives Airports Company(MACL), Island Aviation Services Ltd(iasl) and Maldives In flight Catering (MIC – 51% Maldives government ,49% SATS- SIN ) together provide ground handling services to the aircrafts. On an average, USD 1.2 million is received per month as ground handling revenue and the income distribute as per the agree ratio 56.4(MACL): 34.6 (IASL): 9(MIC)

Other than ground handling services, the above three company generate huge amount of revenue from Male International Airport.

MACL Maldives Airports Company

Sell jet fuel to airlines (highest income to MACL)
Lease space for office, duty free shops, restaurants etcLanding, Navigation and Parking ChargesAirport Tax (year 2008 passengers out 785,911. , received USD 11,002,754.00 as tax ).

IASL Island aviation service limited

Provide Cargo and Lounge services
Provide engineering services to certain airline

MIC Maldives In flight Catering
Provide catering services to airline.

Questions regarding joint venture based on long term lease and my opinion.

If we form a joint venture company with a foreign party, what would happen to IASL and MIC.?
MIC should have to go and government should provide subsidies to IASL for its domestic operation. IASL has been subsidizing its domestic operation loss from the ground handling and other income

Do we have to lease airport for 50 or more years to a foreign party and give them 49% of huge profit from to and abroad?(Male International Airport is a big asset)? No.
We don’t have to allow a foreign party take a huge amount of foreign currency from Maldives.

Do we really need such expansion for the time being?
Maldives is a tourist destination and tourists wants to go to the resorts as quickly as possible after long journey. They look for souvenirs from Airport or resort when they leave Maldives. Yet Tourist has not complained about the services and will not look to get luxury services they receive from Dubai and Singapore simply because Maldives is not a business hub or transit point for travelers.

Do we need any services improvement? can we manage the Airport by ourselves and if so what do we have to do?

Yes we need a service improvement at Male International Airport. We must overhaul the whole management of Maldives Airports Company and identify the corrupt elements and areas of mismanagement .After that we should appoint a new skilled trained management team with foreign experts to run the company. We can discuss with Airline Operators and revise the flight schedule(Currently most aircrafts land between 07 pm -02 pm). what we have to do to avoid congestion at peak time is by revisiting the procedure with the help of consultant and find easy and quick ways for passenger checking, immigration, custom clearance.

More than that we should have modern equipments which are necessary to improve and modernize services. .If we do not have funds I have no doubt there would be enough financial institutions to provide loan facilities since even private companies get million dollars loan from them.

Therefore to give 49 percent of our biggest asset (airport and its affiliate companies) for 50 or more years is not justified in the current scenario. It will decrease government revenue.

Please think about this and do everything to prevent foreign party taking over such a big asset in Maldives for a long period. This is an issue we should have to protest to make government understand.