GMR Male International Airport (GMIAL) today sought to clarify the payment of the airport service charges, fuel re-export royalty and concession fees to the government, following reports in newspaper Haveeru that it was undergoing a tax audit due to “inconsistencies”.
Commissioner General of Taxation Yazeed Mohamed was reported in Haveeru as saying that the Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) was conducting an audit of the payments as “we looked into the speculations and found that there are some issues with the amounts paid.”
Yesterday, Haveeru reported the Managing Director of the Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) Mohamed Ibrahim as saying that the concession fee GMR had paid was US$2.6 million less than predicted.
“The payment was made in the first week of this month. We have informed the company that the amount does not match our estimations. The Finance Ministry has also informed the company that the actual amount would be more than that,” Ibrahim was reported as saying.
GMIAL issued a statement today claiming that concession fees up until March 31 had been paid “in full and complete compliance with the concession agreement.”
“MACL had certain observations to which GMIAL responded on April 11. MACL has not approached GMIAL with any further comments on the issue,” the statement read.
GMIAL further claimed the airport service charge was collected from airlines on behalf of the government until March 31 and paid to the MIRA on April 24, while the fuel re-export royalty was paid to MIRA on April 24 “as per the terms of the fuel re-export agreement.”
“GMIAL has not received any official communication from MIRA, other than acknowledgement of receipt, in relation to the above,” the statement concluded.
Speaking to Minivan News today, MIRA’s Director of Assessment and Audit Aiman Ibrahim said that the audit was “routine, as conducted for all tax types” and that the only inconsistency was that the airport service charge payment “was lower than our forecast.”
“Our forecast for the first three months, based on arrival and departures and factored into our 2011 budget, was that the airport service charge revenue would be US$4 million. The payment for November 25 to March 31 was US$3.9 million, so either there has been an underpayment or our forecasts were optimistic,” Ibrahim said.
The confusion was complicated, he said, “by an administration failure on behalf of the government. The Ministry of Finance was not aware it was supposed to be receiving the money. There is also conflict in the concession agreement: the agreement itself states that the [airport service charge] is to be paid monthly, but an annex in the agreement says payments are to be made on a quarterly basis. GMR had been keeping the money in a separate bank account.”
MIRA had not formally notified GMIAL that it was being audited, he said, as it was a routine audit and no notification was required unless further documentation from GMIAL was required.
GMR had met with MIRA today, Rasheed added, “and were very cooperative. They were concerned about the negative publicity.”
Indian infrastructure giant GMR, in consortium with Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB), last year won a bid to develop and manage Male’ International Airport under a 25 year concession agreement which includes a spend of almost US$400 million on a new terminal.
Under the agreement the consortium paid the government US$78 million upfront, and will pay one percent of its profits and 15 percent of fuel trade revenue until 2014. From 2015 it will pay the government 10 percent of airport profits and 27 percent of the fuel trade until 2035.
The agreement has been a major point of contention with the political opposition in the Maldives, which opposed it on nationalistic grounds.
GMR Male International Airport will be subject to a tax audit, according to reports in local newspaper Haveeru, with the Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) contesting the airport service charge and oil re-export royalties paid to the government did not match expected amounts.
Commissioner General of Taxation, Yazeed Mohamed, told Haveeru that MIRA was acquiring necessary documents from the Immigration Department, Customs and the Maldives Airport Company.
“We are authorised, under the law, to procure documents and conduct tax audits. We looked into the speculations and found that there are some issues with the amounts paid,” he told Haveeru.
A GMR spokesperson meanwhile told Haveeru that both charges were calculated based on information stored in the company’s departure databases: “We’d welcome all those who like to pay a visit and check the information. We haven’t committed any act of deception,” the official was quoted as saying.
The CEO of Male’ International Airport, which is currently operated by Indian infrastructure group GMR, has said that although the company had made certain mistakes in terms of its finance policy of late, management was confident of learning from them to deliver significant changes to the site over the next three months.
Andrew Harrison, who took the CEO position at Male’ international Airport when GMR took control of the site in November, told media today that despite significant work already underway on overhauling behind-the-scenes operations, he was still learning how to deal with stakeholders like airlines and exporters at the site.
The week has threatened to be potentially difficult for GMR, with reports emerging in the press of the company’s alleged plans to increase land lease rent at the airport by 50 percent – the first such price change enacted in a decade. News of the announcement had led some local airlines and a number of import companies raising concerns at the reported increases and the possible impacts on their operations.
Harrison nonetheless claimed that he hoped the public, as well companies working with the airport operator, would soon see more of the changes resulting from its investment in the form of operational and aesthetic improvements at the existing terminal.
“People are expecting to see a lot of change immediately, the change does take a little time, but actually there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes. What we will now see over the next three months is rapid progress where the changes will be more visible to the public,” he said.
“We had, through our concession agreement, been given a mandate to improve levels of service in the existing terminal areas, so this was focused on baggage processing time and baggage delivery time and the checking of passengers. What we are recognising is that people have much greater expectations, so we are spending more money than we are required to in terms of the concession agreement to actually make [the terminal] a much nicer environment.”
The pledge comes as newspaper Haveeru this week reported that airlines such as Island Aviation and seaplane group Trans Maldivian Airlines were concerned at how the implementation of future rent raises could impact on their operations.
Some importers working for the tourist trade have also told Minivan News that they have faced a sudden “100 percent increase” in charges for containers that they need to hire at the airport for their stock.
One importer and supplier of alcohol to a number of tourist properties in the Maldives, who wished to remain anonymous, told Minivan News that a number of the company’s business peers had looked to form a committee over concerns at rate hikes they claim have been deemed “non-negotiable” by GMR.
According to the supplier, the airport operator had acted “unprofessionally” in suddenly announcing that the monthly rates for 70 feet containers at the site were being doubled, meaning certain companies potentially face an additional bill of up to US$45,000 a year to work from the site.
Although the supplier said that they were being given a month to rewrite terms and conditions within new contracts that they were unhappy with, the container rent was seen as a “non-negotiable issue.”
In today addressing the issue of lease rent specifically for local airlines, Harrison denied that any official price had been set, adding that negotiations were now being held with key lease holders like Island Aviation and the company’s sea plane operators over cost amendments that he said remained fully open to negotiation.
Amidst press reports about certain concerns by some lease holders over the potential rise in airport rent and the possible impacts on their operations, Harrison stressed that in future, the company would aim to learn lessons and consult stakeholders “much in advance of any envisaged changes”.
However, the Male’ International Airport CEO claimed the company would still aim to push ahead with adjusted charges in areas such as land lease rent to ensure changes could continue to be funded at the airport. Harrison claimed that this rate increment would remain one of a “few” financial changes expected to be needed at the airport at present.
Though he did not confirm when the decision to potentially amend rent rates had been decided, Harrison claimed that GMR was working from a long-term development and cost plan set out in its original concession agreement.
“I want the airport to be profitable, but I want it to be responsibly profitable, because with those profits we are able to do many things including the development of the airport ongoing. [By] November 15 2011, most of this work will be done, but actually we will continue, it won’t end. There will continuous improvements all the time,” he added. “These improvements have a cost to them, so we need to have a business model that is responsibly profitable and trying to be responsibly profitable means that when you have different ways of doing things, you must engage your stakeholders in dialogue. We didn’t fix a [rent] price.”
According to Harrison, the potential increase in land rates from US$6 per square metre to US$9 for the same area were primarily expected to impact the operations of Island Aviation and the airport’s two seaplane operators with discussions already underway with them in addressing the issues.
A spokesperson for island Aviation confirmed to Minivan News that the company was currently in a “dialogue” with GMR though no out come had as yet been reached.
In trying to allay fears of further cost rises for stakeholders, Harrison claimed that he hoped to try and address the airport’s partners and customers like suppliers and service operators differently over future notices of change.
“I think one of the lessons that we are also learning is that people would like to have this dialogue much in advance of any envisaged changes. So what we are saying is that, ‘right, we have done a range of changes, let’s stop there now,’” he said. “Anything we want to do let’s have a discussion well in advance to understand the impact of changes we well make.”
Harrison took the example of requirements for new VIP and other lounges at the airport that had been requested by airlines to bring them up to the standards expected from “premium passengers”. The airport CEO said that he expected about US$500,000 to be spent on the project in total to try and meet the demands of airline companies.
“In this business model, what we’re trying to see is how much has to be spent and how which will be recovered in the time available. Don’t forget, this terminal has a life of about two and a half years before we move over to the new terminal and on the basis of that can we stay within the existing costs,” he said. “On the basis of that, can we stay within the existing costs? If we can’t what will be the difference [in charges]? Let’s discuss this with the airlines first before we announce, publish or indicate anything.”
In future, Harrison claimed that the company would try and change its current system of issuing communication about proposed changes before starting dialogue with the companies involved, claiming he would look for “better ways” to do things.
Alongside the issues of rent, Harrison conceded that he was not entirely happy with the manner that the company had reacted to a decision by the Maldivian government last week to amend an longstanding set US dollar exchange rate of Rf12.85 to within 20 percent above or below the figure to attempt to alleviate shortages of the currency.
“We’re human beings and sometimes we don’t always get it right. One example of where we didn’t get it right was that as soon as the announcement came from the Maldivian Monetary Autjority (MMA) about floating the exchange rate, we issued a communication announcing an exchange rate of Rf15.42 [to the US dollar],” he said. “That was incorrect of us to do so quickly. We didn’t need to do it. We could have waited to find out what financial institutions such as the banks were going to do before we did that. I have issued a further communication indicating that we will take the best available rate made by the three banks here in the Maldives.”
An interview Minivan News conducted with airport CEO Andrew Harrison last month about his experiences in the Maldives and plans for the airport can be read here.
The Labour Tribunal issued an injunction Tuesday to GMR after the company ordered an employee of the Maldives Airports Company studying abroad to report back to work.
According to Haveeru, the tribunal issued the temporary order after investigating a complaint filed by the employee, Shahryaz Latheef, who is currently in Bangkok, Thailand.
Pending a final decision on the case, the tribunal ordered GMR to pay Latheef basic salary and other expenses for the course as agreed upon in an agreement made with the Maldives Airports Company on July 8, 2010.
However, Latheef’s lawyer Ali Shah claimed that as of today GMR has yet to make the payments, adding that he would take the Indian infrastructure giant to court to enforce the tribunal’s order if it failed to comply before the end of the day.
Rising prices for aviation fuel and increased ground handling charges made by GMR, the Indian infrastructure giant that is now managing and developing Male’ International Airport, are in line with international prices, the airport’s CEO Andrew Harrison has told Minivan News.
The price of fuel at the airport has increased 35.39 percent at the airport and 35.67 percent internationally, Harrison said, in an update on progress at the airport during an initial 180 day strategy period following the company taking the reins.
“We are not even passing over the full increase in prices of fuel – we’re sensitive to airline customers and what the price of fuel means to them,” Harrison said. “The escalating price is affecting the whole global economy, and affects airlines directly not just here but at all other locations.”
Harrison sought to head off concerns aired recently that the cost of fuel at Male’ International Airport was impacting airlines’ willingness to fly to the destination.
“No airline has come forward and said they are unhappy with our pricing, but they are concerned about the global price of fuel,” he said. “With all the volatility there are challenges there.”
“We are working on some strategies to reduce the cost of providing fuel to them. We’ve spent the last six weeks meeting airlines – some want credit terms, others a set supply criteria – we are trying to meet the need of the majority.”
“The pricing of fuel is not something we compare one place to another, because there are many variables including the method of delivery and the volume you’re buying. The size of the berth we have limits the size of vessel we can charter, and these factors affect the price we can buy and supply fuel at.”
GMR had signed a US$140 million contract with the State Trading Organisation (STO) to supply fuel, he added, switching the contract over from Dubai-based Galana Petroleum.
“Our sense was it was better to use a company right here with us that would share in the risk and opportunity and try to get us the best possible price – for instance, the STO has its own vessel, and may not need to charter one. They made an extremely competitive bid.”
Many airlines, he explained, used a middleman reseller who bought fuel and sold it by offering components such as credit terms.
“Resellers may be in a better position to do that, as we are not a company in the business of providing credit terms to airlines. But what we are saying is that because the airline is our direct customer we prefer a direct relationship with them.”
This had led, Harrison said, “to a number of airlines leaving intermediaries and coming to us directly. They have a choice – but they are coming to us.”
Ground handling spikes
GMR has significantly increased ground-handling charges to bring the price in line with other international airports, Harrison said.
The ground-handling charge for a B777, used by many airlines flying to Male’, was recently raised from US$1990 to US$2985 ( at daytime) and US$3585 ( at night) – an increase of over 50 percent.
“It’s not necessarily unreasonable or overpriced – it may seem like a jump but there’s been no increase in 12 years, and we are still more competitive than a number of international markets,” he claimed, noting that the comparable cost in an Australian airport was US$4286 and US$4388 in Europe.
Most other services, such as the provision of ground power, were either cheaper than comparable rates in India or included – airports such as Hyderbad charge airlines for services such as the provision of wheelchairs, or use of a scissor-lift for people unable to climb the stairs to the plane.
Free storage of airline baggage containers had actually resulted in the airport being inundated, “but instead of charging we are asking airlines to reduce them to realistic levels.”
Ground-handling charges were less that four percent of an airline’s operating cost, he noted, “but that doesn’t mean we want the issue to escalate.”
Corruption allegations
Despite persistent allegations from opposition parties that there was corruption in the airport bidding process, including several cases forwarded to the Anti-Corruption Commission which vowed to investigate, “we have not been approached by the ACC,” Harrison said.
“There has been no formal communication [with the ACC], and we are extremely confident of standing up to any scrutiny because of the way the bid was scrutinised by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC).
“They been here recently as part of their due-diligence process, meeting members of the public, ministers and stakeholders, and holding a community meeting in Hulhumale’ about the impact of the development. They wouldn’t be here doing that if they felt they were part of something that had not been done properly. We are confident that irrespective of what is being discussed in the media that we followed a legal and due process that was transparent and respected.”
There were, he acknowledged, “people who believe in what we doing, people who feel they haven’t seen sufficient evidence of what we’re doing, and people who will never be convinced no matter what we do.”
Cultural construction
The first 180 days, Harrison explained, had been spent merging the cultures of the three organisations now operated under GMR Male’ International Airport – the former Maldives Airport Company Limited (MACL), Island Aviation’s passenger check-in and passenger handing operation, MIC’s interior cleaning, “as well as GMR’s culture.”
The company’s organisational structure had been unveiled with an emphasis on staff training, involvement in decision making and addressing issues such as a noticeable gender imbalance.
“We found a gender imbalance in the workplace – there were not many ladies operating at levels where they had significant levels of responsibility,” Harrison observed. “So we tried to address this – the new Head of IT Operations is a very qualified lady who is very good at her job, but she was many levels below and wasn’t being allowed to operate at a level that matched her potential.”
GMR was making an effort to communicate in both Dhivehi and English, he said, launching Dhivehi language classes for non-Maldivians and producing documents in both languages.
Staff suggestions and involvement had led to the creation of a non-punitive safety system, encouraging reporting rather than punishment, upgrade of the airport’s sea rescue capabilities and the replacement of 350 unbranded assembled computers with a consistent Dell IT infrastructure – and paid software licences.
Glitches in communication emerged as well – GMR took a dim view at the beginning of March when security staff began conducting pat down searches of every passenger trying to enter the terminal.
“A pat-down check is more efficient when people are experienced, but not when you introduce it on a peak morning with queues all the way down to the seaplane check in area, with no notification to the airlines or us,” Harrison said. “As a result of that we had unprecedented delays – nearly every flight that morning was delayed. Security took a line that nothing new was introduced, but after an emergency meeting the pat downs were stopped and the queues disappeared.”
He was, he said, happy to look at industry best practice and whatever technology was required, “but [I] am not prepared to introduce something not in line with international standards. Heathrow and Gatwick search 25 percent of those who don’t set off the alarm. Here we were searching 100 percent.”
CEO Andrew Harrison (left) at the airport handover
Physical infrastructure
Harrison was very conscious of public expectations regarding the airport upgrade – following the release of artist impressions of the airport, GMR has kept a low profile while introducing its organisational structure and attempting to win over staff to its nearly US$400 million vision for the airport.
Managing such expectations had been one of the key challenges, he said: “A lot of people felt there would be changes to the terminal the day we took over – but there have been many considerations, such as impact of work in peak periods, and understanding what work we want to do.”
Many physical improvements were scheduled to begin as the Maldives leaves peak travel season: “We weren’t in a position to remove even a single baggage carousel,” Harrison said.
GMR has a lot of work ahead of it if it plans to meet its target of upgrading the existing terminal by October. The refurbishment is “essentially throw-away” considering it will have less than a three year lifespan until the new terminal is completed in 2014.
During a tour of the present airport terminal Harrison provided a running commentary of planned improvements – including a food court (selling, among other foodstuffs, Turkish kebabs – a Male’ first) and raising the ceiling of the arrivals area so tourists could see the sea from the gate.
Harrison admitted that the scale of investment in the upgrade made it tempting to just bring forward the date of the new terminal, however he acknowledged the local appetite to see quick improvements.
“People will see changes in the coming months. For example, we’re about to start work on the domestic terminal, increasing the space available by 50 percent. This falls outside the concession agreement, which mostly concerns international travellers – but a lot of domestic passengers are Maldivian and deserve to benefit from the improvements as well.”
Other improvements will include redesigned and standardised tourist counters that are branded individually by resorts, a left luggage service, baggage wrapping service (“this is popular for a number of destinations, especially Eastern Europe”), porter service (“people particularly from the Middle East want the services of paid porters”), ‘fast-track’ immigration and customs as well as the potential for a ‘premium’ jetty.
There will also soon be a spa in the departure area offering 20 minute shoulder and foot massages, and possibly a nap and shower facility. Moreover, ‘soft skills’ trainers loaned from Singapore Airlines, “some of the best in the world”, had been invited to help train front-of-house staff at the airport.
Following construction of the new terminal, Harrison said the goal was to turn Male’ into one of the top five airports in the 1-5 million passenger category (the airport presently sees 2.4 million visitors through its gates a year).
“Look at the kind of experience a tourist coming to the Maldives goes through,” he said. “The natural beauty of the resort environment, and then the airport experience they go through at the end – it’s not right, standing in extensive queues, with a level of service so far apart from that of the resorts.”
Economy and marketing
Asked whether GMR had concerns about operating in the Maldives given the state of the country’s economy, Harrison said he believed the improved airport itself was part of the solution.
“An airport is an economic engine for a country,” he explained, “allowing trade, travel – both passenger and cargo – and employment. If the processes are made efficient, it has positive impact on the economy.”
Moreover, GMR’s involvement provided resources and expertise in opening up new tourism markets for the Maldives, Harrison explained, particularly undeveloped markets such as the United States.
“We want to talk to resorts, the Ministry of Tourism and the airlines about possibly marketing the Maldives in the US,” Harrison said.
“The US is the most underrepresented market in terms of direct tourism, however 14 percent – the highest single percentage – of tourists arriving coming into Delhi hold US passports. If they are willing to fly to India it’s only a short hop to the Maldives – I think it’s a matter of awareness and understanding connectivity and flight options, and most importantly, what’s here at end of the journey.”
The Maldives, he said, represented a “more interesting prospect” than traditional nearby island destinations visited by US tourists, such as the Bahamas and the Caribbean, adding that GMR was keen to explore this untapped market.
“We didn’t go to ITB [the recent travel industry trade show held in Berlin] this year because we didn’t think we had anything to say and I didn’t really want it to just be a jolly,” Harrison said. “But next year we’ll have a stand showcasing what we are doing here.”
GMR Male’ International Airport Limited (GMIAL) has announced that the Maldives State Trading Organization (STO) will begin supplying fuel to its operations from the beginning of April under the terms of a one-year contract.
The company has claimed that STO beat off competition from a host of international bidders to win the contract that will commence from 1 April 2011. The contract is expected to amount to a total value of US$140m over its twelve month lifespan – reflecting the supply of about 1.1 million barrels of fuel.
GMIAL said in a statement that the success of STO’s bid was based on both technical and economic factors such as the capability to supply both Jet A-1 fuel and Marine Gas Oil (MGO) as well providing testing facilities and the lowest financial premiums.
Andrew Harrison, CEO of GMIAL, said the decision was a key step in working to try and set the airport up as a world class facility and reduce any interruptions to transport services, while also offering direct economic benefits to the local economy.
“This contract will bring commercial revenue in form of US Dollar receipts to a Maldivian company, which will be a valuable benefit in terms of foreign exchange trading,” he stated.
Security officials at Male’ International Airport have rejected criticism that increased scrutiny during passenger checks was responsible for the delay of a number of flights yesterday morning, claiming there has been no additional or emergency measures put in place.
In a statement issued by infrastructure giant GMR, which is currently managing and renovating the existing airport site ahead of opening an entirely new terminal to open in 2014, the company said that six international flights were “heavily delayed” on 1 March.
The adoption of new security measures yesterday at the airport that it had not been informed of were alleged to be responsible for the delays.
According to the company, six flights scheduled to take off between 9:00am and 10:00am were unable to leave on time due to the congestion of passengers waiting to pass through security checks to catch their planes.
“These delays were the direct results of additional security measures introduced by the Aviation Security Division,” the company stated. “These measures included the physical hand pat‐down of each departing passenger which led to longer processing times extending the queuing time. These additional measures were not communicated by the Aviation Security Command to GMR Male’ International Airport Pvt. Ltd. or the customer airlines.”
GMR claimed that i a physical pat-down of every passenger after passing through metal detectors was believed to have resulted in flights being delayed during the morning by up to one hour and twenty minutes.
The company added that it was common practice at airports all over the world to use hand-held scanning devices instead during security checks.
“The standard queuing time required under the Concession Agreement is 10 minutes until processing at the x‐ray machine,” GMR stated. “This morning processing time for a large number of passengers was in excess of 40 minutes and as a result, flights could not close check‐in at the allocated time which led to the extensive departure delays.”
GMR claimed that although it was focused on trying to ensure improvements to all areas of airport service during its tenure – particularly by working with airlines and regulators – the company said that the “highest standards” must be maintained without severely impacting the experience of passengers.
In responding to the criticisms, Moosa Habib from the airport’s Aviation Security Command said that no new procedures such as pat downs of all passengers had been put in place during the morning before clearing passengers for their flights.
Habib claimed that many other factors outside their control were also responsible for any delays.
“The security measures are the airport and very important and sometimes they can be strict,” he said. “But there are many factors out of our control that can delay flights.”
Habib told Minivan News that there had not been any changes to security procedures during the morning and that he believed “business operated as normal” with pat-down procedures taking between 20 to 30 seconds per passenger.
A spokesperson for the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) told Minivan News that it had no real role in providing security at the airport.
The spokesperson added that the MNDF currently did not hold any concerns about security at the site.
When I arrived today (February 16, 2011) at the GRM Male’ International Airport on flight IC 966, I saw Mr Hareef wearing a ‘Customer Service’ uniform and it was the first time I saw such a high level staff at the apron to welcome the arrivals. I took it as a positive sign and as a proof of GMR’s commitment to improve customer service at the airport.
From the flight we went direct to the Immigration Counter. When the Immigration Officer signaled for our turn, Mr Hareef intervened and handed over five Maldivian passports to him. He instructed not to take our passports but to process passports of his friends who were behind the queue. Those friends included Mr Ilyas Ibrahim, a man who has squeezed Maldivian blood for 30 years.
When the airport was handed over to the GMR, we celebrated it with great pride because it was the day airport got ‘freedom’ from the cronies and thugs of the 30-year dictatorship. As you may be aware, Mr Ilyas is the brother in-law of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, one of the world’s most brutal dictators and Ilyas’s influence at the airport is a proof that our beloved airport is still not free from the cronies of the dictator.
Ilyas’ close ally Hareef is an official who played a key role in deals at the Male’ international airport during Gayoom’s 30-year rule. It is a shame on GMR to employ such thugs and destroy the reputation of our international airport.
As a customer I expect you to take appropriate action against Hareef because discrimination is a crime in our constitution and he continues to practice his power similar to the years of the dictator.
-GMR Customer
All letters are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write a letter, please submit it to [email protected]
Overcoming a lack of space for planes landing at Male’ International Airport continues to remain a long-term problem for the site’s new operators, according to Miadhu.
Citing a “reliable source” at the airport, Miadhu reported that craft flying to Male’ International have been consistently delayed in the air for periods of about an hour over a number of years due to limitations at the site in regards to space and the time required to service flights.
Up to seven aircraft have been reportedly left queuing in the airspace around Male’ at a single time waiting for clearance to land, the paper reported.
President’s Office Press Secretary, Mohamed Zuhair, told Miadhu that he believed the recent privatization agreement signed between the Government and multinational infrastructure group GMR would help to try to speed up the processing time for visitors with additional security outlets and luggage reclaim facilities being made available at the airport.
“Flights that land can be serviced quicker, allowing them to leave on schedule,” the paper quoted Zuhair as saying.
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