Project Description

Velana International Airport

Client: Maldives Airport Company

Known previously as Ibrahim Nasir International Airport, the Maldive’s Velana International Airport is the busiest seaplane operation in the world.

To allow the airport to be brought up to ICAO standards, L&B was engaged as prime/lead consultant for the runway and seaplane terminal studies The studies included the development of aviation forecast, runway capacity analysis, terminal and support facility requirements, seaplane terminal layout options, access plans and utility requirements.

The existing airport runway does not have a parallel taxiway so a new land based runway will be developed with the existing runway as the parallel taxiway, resulting in increased operational safety margins and an overall increase in airport capacity.

The runway system study comprised review and reconfiguration of the new international land-based runway and included a market distance analysis, runway length and alignment analysis, taxiway exits, isolation pad, ILS critical and sensitive area evaluation, new east apron layout plans, obstacle limitation surfaces evaluation and runway approach and airfield lights requirements.

The new seaplane terminal and support facilities study included the relocation to a new seaplane terminal, requiring a reconfiguration of the water runways and taxiing operations.