Photo by Yassin Hameed. Courtesy Portrait Gallery, Maldives

Ferry dhonis are the traditional method of inter-island hopping while the manta ray Flightship may be the future of Maldivian transport.

Courtesy Flightship

For a chain of islands spread over 90,000 square kilometers, transport has to be one of the key issues in development. An efficient network will reduce the political, economic and social isolation of people on more remote islands, which is the reason why the Maldivian government is promising to focus hard on the problems and opportunities facing the sector.

The most noticeable feature of the Maldives’ transport network is its diseconomy of scale. Maldivians pay far above normal prices for basic goods and services, (and, most noticeably for the transport sector, fuel) because it costs so much to transport them. Schools and clinics cost, on average, six times as much to build on the islands because of the costs involved in obtaining materials. Even the vaccination of children is five times more expensive than in Sri Lanka, because patients are spread over 199 islands.

Ilyas Ibrahim, Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, says that domestic transport is the real problem. “Because there is no master plan, it is being developed on an ad hoc basis and is not being equitably distributed. It may be easier to travel from here to London than it is to travel from one island to another.” Now, however, the government has announced that it is formulating the First National Transport Plan, which will cover international sea transport, inter-island shipping, air networks and roads.

The government plans eventually to complete a series of airstrips across the nation at 35-mile intervals, built and run with the help of licensed private sector companies. Minister Ibrahim explains that six airports are projected to join the five (four regional and one international) already existing. So far, he says, the plan is just that: “…there is no implementation schedule.”

The failure of the national carrier, Air Maldives, has left the market to Island Aviation Services, a government owned operation established in 1998. Although foreign airlines still exist to provide international flights, the internal carriers Maldivian Air Taxi and Trans-Maldivian are now alone in serving the tourist sector with seaplane travel – but most services are dedicated to tourism and not the needs of inhabited islands. As resorts are built farther and farther from the capital, new airports and more scheduled air traffic are needed.

Stretching resources to serve passengers
The Male’ International Airport (MIA), is run by the Maldives Airports Company (a state-owned enterprise). Managing Director Mohamed Ibrahim says that the country is underserved by airlines, even in the area of tourism. “There is not enough airline access to this market,” he says, “and we depend on foreign airlines.” He confirms that there is a need for better scheduling of flights: “They all come at once, and we cannot plan for the peak.” He points out that if international flights can be rationalized, internal operators will have an easier time scheduling flights and serving the domestic market.

The country’s national carrier, Island Aviation Services would like to be able to work harder than it does. Managing Director Bahdhu Ibrahim Saleem says its priority is to be fair to both the tourist industry and the population of the islands. “We have to cater to the needs of the islands and of the tourism industry. It is not either/or, it should be both. Given the past records of civil aviation for Maldivian investors operating in the sea plane market, they are not reaching everywhere. But they are taking most of the cream of civil aviation.”

The Maldivian tourist sector needs to move beyond the restrictions of its reliance on seaplane transport for domestic transfers, Saleem points out. Seaplanes are more fragile and need more maintenance than ordinary aircraft, and are unsafe to fly at night. However, they constitute the main method of transport for tourists arriving in Male’ and needing to get to resorts on the outlying islands.

Improving infrastructure
One major project proposed by the government is its upgrading of Male’ International and three of the four regional airports so that they will be able, from the start of 2003, to operate day and night. Saleem congratulates the government: “The upgrading of three regional airports is a step forward in terms of investment policy. We are moving from a daylight operation to a 24-hour-a-day operation.”

Saleem also approves of the government’s plan to license airport-building to private companies. “The government is doing a very wise thing. This is what we call the dynamics of a small country: the private sector is leading and the government is paving the way for people to invest in and run their own enterprises.”

He cautions, however, that there must be strong regulation if the industry is to be privatized: “Civil aviation management is highly technical, so we should be cautious... it [privatization] should be done in a controlled fashion, without sacrificing the security of the operation and the safety of passengers.” The government agrees: under the new arrangement, management of new airports would be in the hands of the owning companies, while services relating to air traffic control and security would continue to be provided though the government.

Saleem was formerly the Managing Director of the Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC), the company which recently won the contract to upgrade regional airports, resurfacing them and providing lighting so that they can receive night flights. The company competed with four international companies to win the tender, the first such open bidding in the history of the Maldives’ transport sector.

Inviting private participation
The airport sector’s availability to private enterprise became more than a plan recently when the government announced that it would allow Qasim Ibrahim, one of the Maldives’ most successful private entrepreneurs and Chairman of Villa Shipping and Trading Company, to lease an island and begin construction of a domestic airport.

The new airport will be able to receive 40-seater aircrafts round the clock (Qasim says that the availability of night flights will bring resort prices down 35 percent), and, along with a related project to build a harbor, will cost an estimated 8 to 10 million dollars. It is hoped that it will make travel to Ari Atoll, a tourism-heavy area where Qasim owns two resorts, cheaper and more accessible.

“This project will not only help develop tourism further in Ari Atoll,” Qasim says, “but will also help develop the entire atoll as transport becomes faster and cheaper.”

Qasim also holds shares in one of the domestic airlines, Trans Maldivian Airlines (TMA), and it is possible that once the airport becomes operational TMA may start operating lightweight aircraft to and from the island. He explains that the project as a whole is expected to take two years, at least a year of which will be spent on land reclamation, “since reclaiming land without harming the environment takes time,” he says.

Qasim points out that if tourists arrive at night they often cannot reach their resorts, but says the new airstrip will solve the problem: “The moment they arrive they can depart for their destination hotel by air,” he explains.” If his gamble pays off, the next decade could see the regional airports becoming privatized and leased as well – a strategy many already think will be a profitable option.

Another option is becoming available for tourists: Sunland Group of Companies’ Flightship. Shaped like a manta ray, built in sizes that fit either 6 or 40 passengers, the revolutionary craft taxis on the water before rising to 3.5 meters above the sea for its journey. “We will start servicing our resorts, and then expanding as well to others,” says Shabeer Ahmed, Managing Director of Sunland. “This is going to be the solution for transport in the Maldives. It is cost-effective and environmentally friendly.”

The four six-passenger craft will initially serve Sunland’s resorts, but the company aims to expand to others and eventually to general transport. Shabeer says they provide a solution to the classic Maldivian challenge: “With this craft we can reach any point with no need of infrastructure.”

The government is also planning to expand MIA: a 22-million-dollar contract will be awarded next month for a departure terminal extension, a new domestic terminal, a new control tower and power house, and staff training. Another contract, an 8-million-dollar deal involving the provision of surveillance radar and better tower-aircraft communications, is up for grabs. When the present phase of development is completed, which the government hopes will be by the end of 2002, a project to extend runways and develop warehousing will begin. Mohamed Ibrahim says the contracts are hotly contested because “the steady growth of tourism guarantees the feasibility of the investment.”

The Gan airport on Seenu Atoll, which currently only handles intra-island passenger flights and international cargo, is also to be reconstructed, to receive international flights. “By facilitating international flights there,” Mohamed Ibrahim says, “we will facilitate tourism development in the area as well.”

A sustainable port system
Its ports are another area the Maldives is being pushed to modernize. Environmentally sensitive dredging practices are needed if islands are to develop ports that will not damage them in the long term, along with the development and organization of systems to run them. What is needed, the government believes, is investment in harbor facilities and associated infrastructure, and the development of corporate and business plans for the Maldives Port Authority.

At present, official transport services exist between Male’ and other islands, but not between the islands themselves. Scheduled, affordable services are needed to transport people between and within atolls.

Most of the government’s development plans relate to the needs of ordinary Maldivians – fishermen and those who need transport from island to island. Scheduled, affordable services are needed to transport people between and within atolls. “Development has been in relation to the particular needs of the people,” says Minister Ibrahim. He explains that since tourist resorts are mainly concentrated in accessible areas, “the need was to meet subsistence requirements for the fisheries.” But now, he says, increasing development of the fisheries sector necessitates provisions for larger mechanized vessels, and has led to a rethinking of strategy.

One project especially likely to aid an underserved population is the new harbor on Foammulah, an isolated island that constitutes an atoll itself surrounded by roiling currents. The new harbor will be a leap forward in safety for passengers arriving there, who formerly had to transfer onto dhonis (traditional small fishing boats) to make it to the island at all. The 8-million-dollar project was accomplished by government funding in concert with a loan from the Danish government.

Now two international ports are planned; one in the north and one in the south, each with a capacity of 3,000 tonnes, to spread the load of international cargo transports. “Of all the cargo that comes to Male’,” Minister Ibrahim explains, “close to 80 percent goes to the islands, so if these two ports could take direct cargo from overseas it would lessen the burden on Male’s commercial harbor.”

The government is hoping the new infrastructure will turn the Maldives into a functional international transshipment port – a return to its ancient roots as a trading station for the Portuguese and Arabs. The Minister notes that the amount of investment needed, however, necessitates foreign involvement.

If the Maldives is to accomplish the kind of development its government projects, its transport system will be a key element in its success. Now that the sector is opening up, coordinating private and public efforts has to be the government’s next challenge – one it says it is prepared to rise to.