Male: Indians in Male and elsewhere in Maldives heaved a sigh of relief as the stand-off between Male airport operator GMR, and the Maldives government fizzled out and Maldives took over the running of the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport from the midnight of December 7.
“There are no problems in the [running of the] airport,” said GMR spokesperson Arun Bhagat. GMR personnel are still handling most operations, though Finance Minister Abdullah Jihad had handed over to CEO and MD of Maldives Airports Company Mohamed Ibrahim a document authorising him to operate the airport.
No GMR representative was present at the handing over ceremony. Asked about this, Attorney General Aishath Azima Shakoor said it was not necessary for GMR to hand over the airport. With the notice period ending at 23:59 on December 7, the government became the owner of the airport from midnight, she said.
Some crew of a few international airlines to whom The Hindu spoke to were not even aware of the stand-off.
09/12/12 RK Radhakrishnan/The Hindu
