Have you booked for the Maldives? Here's why you'll (still) use the ugly old terminal in Malé

In July it was Velana's new Terminal 1 inaugurated International Airport, the international airport of the Maldives.

It was supposed to mark the beginning of a new era for those flying to the archipelago, but three months after opening, the reality is very different: almost all companies continue to use the old and obsolete Terminal 2.

From Italy you arrive at T1 in only one case

For Italian travelers, the situation is clear: No direct flights from Italy use the new terminal, except for Beond.

Neos, the only Italian airline operating direct connections to Malé, still operates its flights from the T2. In the coming months. ITA Airways will resume course for the Maldives, and again the operations will probably take place from the old terminal.

Beond therefore remains the only carrier that directly connects Italy to the new T1.

This is a company all-business, with about 50 seats on board e two flights per week, designed for a niche audience. It operates with an Airbus A319 performing A technical stopover in Dubai for refueling, during which passengers stay on board.

The other option is. Air Arabia, a low-cost emirate flying from Bergamo but has a stopover in Sharjah, a solution that the average traveler headed to the Maldives is unlikely to consider.

Big companies stay on T2

Even on the international front, the situation does not change. None of the big three Gulf airlines - Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways - still operate from the new Terminal 1.

The reasons seem to be logistical: the lounges are not yet ready e handling operations for aircraft wide-body, with over 300 passengers, Are more complex to manage than the single-aisle aircraft of regional airlines already flying from T1.

Still a slow transfer

Only in recent weeks have some companies begun to move their operations to the new terminal, but these are mostly medium-caliber carriers. These include. IndiGo, Maldivian, Gulf Air, Fits Air, Malaysia Airlines, Batik Air, Bangkok Airways e Beijing Capital Airlines.

The result is that the new and modern T1 at Velana International Airport remains, for now, an underutilized infrastructure, while the old and worn-out Terminal 2 continues to handle almost all international traffic.

A new terminal still waiting to take off

With T1, the Maldives have taken an important step forward, but full operation takes time. Until then, the experience of traveling to the archipelago will remain suspended between two worlds: the new that waits and the old that resists.