More runways. Same people left out.
The Maldives runs 20 airports and has 17 more planned, under way or announced. We measured every one against a 30-minute speed-boat ride from each inhabited island. Most new proposals reach people who can already get to an airport. 61,704 people still can’t.
10 of 17 proposed airports add no one new.
Every island they would serve is already within 25 km of an operating airport, or of another proposal that covers the same people. 3 more add under 1,000 people each. Some sit almost on top of an existing runway:
- Villingili International Airport
- 2.6 km from Kooddoo
- Thinadhoo International Airport
- 4.9 km from Kaadedhdhoo
- Milandhoo Airport
- 14.5 km from Funadhoo
Even two operating airports, Hanimaadhoo International and Kulhudhuffushi Airport, are only 17 km apart. The explorer’s Policy insights view suggests lagoon sites that would reach the uncovered islands instead.
61,704 people live more than 30 minutes from any airport.
63 inhabited islands sit outside every operating airport’s 25 km reach. 29,687 of those people have no airport proposed anywhere near them. The ten largest:
| Island | People | To airport | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| MaafushiKaafu | 4,499 | 28.2 km | Nothing planned |
| MahibadhooAlifu Dhaalu | 2,570 | 35.2 km | Nothing planned |
| KaashidhooKaafu | 2,450 | 42.8 km | Nothing planned |
| ThoddooAlifu Alifu | 1,923 | 68.8 km | Nothing planned |
| MeedhooRaa | 1,868 | 28.9 km | Proposal nearby |
| AlifushiRaa | 1,852 | 29.9 km | Proposal nearby |
| VelidhooNoonu | 1,832 | 25.4 km | Proposal nearby |
| NilandhooFaafu | 1,825 | 43.5 km | Proposal nearby |
| MaduvvariRaa | 1,753 | 28.5 km | Proposal nearby |
| GuraidhooKaafu | 1,739 | 33.1 km | Nothing planned |
Seaplanes already land near these islands. Just not for residents.
The Ministry of Transport registers 125 seaplane platforms, almost all serving resorts. If those routes also carried Maldivians to their own islands, 34 more inhabited islands and 33,545 more people would be within 10 km of a landing.
Share of the population (445,479, Census 2022) within reach.
Three islands, three questions.
Does Maafushi need an airport?
4,499 people, 28.2 km from Velana International Airport: about 3.2 km past the line that stands in for the government’s 30-minute air connectivity policy, and inside the 35 km optimistic ring. A seaplane platform is already within 10 km. Is that a case for a runway, a faster boat, or a seaplane seat?
See Maafushi in the explorerWhere would Alifu Dhaalu put an airport to serve islands like Mahibadhoo?
The atoll capital is 35.2 km from Villa International Airport Maamigili. 5 of the atoll’s 10 inhabited islands, 4,894 people, sit outside its reach. A site near Mahibadhoo would reach 4,476 of them on 4 islands. The closest proposal, Mathiveri, is 54.2 km away.
See Mahibadhoo in the explorerDoes Thinadhoo need an airport when Kaadedhdhoo is next door?
6,233 people already live 4.9 km from Kaadedhdhoo Airport, which handled 3,222 movements in 2024. Every inhabited island in Gaafu Dhaalu is already within reach, so the proposed international airport adds no one. What is the opportunity cost? In Alifu Alifu, 8 of 8 islands (7,997 people) have no airport within reach at all.
See Thinadhoo in the explorer
Find your island. Check the numbers yourself.
Every airport, coverage ring, island and resort, with operational vs planned scenarios, 15 / 25 / 35 km radii, the seaplane overlay, and CSV and GeoJSON downloads.
Open the explorerMethod. Coverage is great-circle distance from each inhabited island to each operating airport, with 25 km standing in for a 30-minute speed-boat transfer. Airports come from a Right to Information request to the Civil Aviation Authority plus public announcements; islands from the OneMap registry with Census 2022 population; seaplane platforms from the Ministry of Transport. Proposed airports sit at island centroids until final coordinates are published.
has been late more than 2,300 times since June 2026. Do more airports help, or make it worse for all of us?
A live counter of every delayed Maldivian flight at Velana, read from the airport’s own flight information feed. Over 59 days of combined delay so far, on routes to the same regional airports mapped above.
See for yourself on the delay tracker(opens maldivian-tracker.vercel.app in a new tab)Opens maldivian-tracker.vercel.app in a new tab
Departures
| Flight | To | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Q2192 | Hoarafushi / Funadhoo | Delayed +51m |
| Q2132 | Maafaru / Madivaru | Delayed +25m |
| Q2442 | Kulhudhuffushi | Delayed +22m |
About the author
Ahmed Afrah Ismail
Afrah is a mechanical engineer with nine years of multidisciplinary work in the Maldives environmental sector. The focus is circular economy and waste management, cutting across into environmental governance, spatial data analysis and communicating data through visual means.
As co-founder and President of Zero Waste Maldives, Afrah has helped shape the national Extended Producer Responsibility framework, island waste segregation standards, waste audits and hazardous-waste training for island councils. The common thread is turning public records, often obtained through Right to Information requests, into maps and tools that the people affected can read for themselves.
Airstripped follows that thread from waste to airports. Related work includes Driftprint, a citizen map of ocean-plastic bottles on Maldivian beaches, the Green Fund Money Map, a tracker of island waste management centres, and Ourisles.mv, open spatial data for every inhabited island.