State Trading Organization (STO) on Monday decided to sell its shares in the Addu International Airport (AIA).
The state owns 50 percent of AIA, 30 percent with local tycoon Champa Hussain Afeef’s KASA Holdings, 10 percent with Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) and the remaining 10 percent owned by STO.
STO owns 40,000 shares worth MVR 1,000 in AIA, which was founded in 2011. STO's shares will be transferred under the state.
AIA previously noted that the airport faces substantial risks and fail to meet modern-day standards, as per audit reports, adding that no pieces of equipment were upgraded since the airport was redeveloped in 1984 through the Australian Aid.
"Even the (airport traffic control) tower has the same equipment from then. Operating in this state is a big risk", said a spokesperson for AIA.
The company associated the airport's degrading condition with successive administrations' failure to prioritise its development.
The airport was originally built by the United Kingdom as a staging post for its Royal Air Force during the 1950s and was handed over to Maldives in 1976.
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