While the Maldives is known for being a luxury vacation destination, the fun doesn’t really start until you get to your resort, as Velana International Airport (MLE) has historically been a bit of a mess.
Continue reading: Finally: Malé Velana Airport’s New Terminal Opens, In Phased Manner
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
The new terminal looks promising! I'm looking forward to it being fully open for my next vacation in March 2026. But to be honest, I don't need airline-owned lounges. I'll be happy if the new lounges offer enough showers. I always „enjoyed“ climbing into the extremely overheated seaplane and then boarding an 11-hour long-haul flight to Europe completely sweaty and sticky.
Odd that Oman Air is listed as they are not flying there currently and announced a resumption of service in October has been scrapped.
On one hand, there's worry Maldives could disappear by 2100 due to the rising ocean levels. On the other hand, it seems many islands have stabilized, or even expanded back. Enjoy while it lasts?
flying in on Qatar in just over 3 weeks and then on to domestic terminal for connection to Maamigili..
and sadly QR not on the initial list, surpise as they have 3, sometimes 4, flights daily...
can update you with my experience in and out early September...
As someone who worked on the construction of this terminal in 2018 I am so happy that it is now complete and something for the Maldivian people to be proud of, it looks magnificent.
I do love the old terminal though and will miss it, I especially enjoyed the deplaning direct to the apron and walking to the terminal, very reminiscent of my early days of travel.
This is great news! Despite the aspirational nature of the destination, the airport experience has been decidedly suboptimal, even for premium carriers both on arrival and departure. In the existing system. once you clear the customs/immigration to make sure you don't have any hidden hootch, the experience improves markedly with the various resort lounges. This goes in reverse upon departure.
Ben - are you aware of the new LIM airport? Used it several times last month and it's quite an upgrade from the old one. Still some finishing work being done but overall impressive. Most frustrating are the access roads to the new terminal which are not yet finished so traffic can be a mess
is anyone going to talk about airpeace. they will soon start flights from abuja to heathrow and also lagos airport announced renovations
We were there on 26th, lots of excitement, airport looks very impressive , close up and across the water. Traffic a bit hectic and roads around airport need a bit of work as not finished . Arrival at old airport has an exciting holiday charm but departures terrible and at $22 for 2 coffees at what feels like an overcrowded shed, a new airport with better facilities much needed - I love the architecture of new airport
Update Aug 19-31...
new terminalis NOT open for flights... (now called terminal 1 with the old terminal now known as terminal 2).. NO ACTIVITY NO PLANES.. at gates.. everything still as it was.. yes it looks spectacular and will be great when it really opens... but all flights are still parked at end of new terminal or near by and all arrivals and departures are still by bus
Update Aug 19-31...
new terminalis NOT open for flights... (now called terminal 1 with the old terminal now known as terminal 2).. NO ACTIVITY NO PLANES.. at gates.. everything still as it was.. yes it looks spectacular and will be great when it really opens... but all flights are still parked at end of new terminal or near by and all arrivals and departures are still by bus
Hard not to 'enjoy' Maldives as a visitor. Few of us alive today are making it to 2100 anyway....
@Ben Schlappig -- Have you seen any further updates and/or reviews about the new Terminal 1 and/or lounges there? Hardly anyone on FlyerTalk has mentioned it. Here's something on a supposed new lounge Koveli: loungereview.com/lounges/koveli-lounge-mle/ Someone sorta reviewed it about 10 days ago (who knows if that's accurate). Looks like it may be better than the Leeli lounge in the older international terminal (2). Visiting soon and will try to report back.
Made it. They opened new international terminal to more airlines within the past month. Arrived for the first time on an actual jet-bridge at MLE. Wow. It’s incredible. The new Koveli lounge for departures (near A4) actually has showers! Between this and the new seaplane terminal, Maldives (Malé in-particular) is doing quite well!
For those interested, I recently reviewed the new MLE Terminal 1 Arrivals experience, and Ben posted it as a Reader Story here: https://onemileatatime.com/community-stories/male-velana-airport-new-terminal-1-international-arrivals/