As an archipelagic country, the Maldives, Virana International Airport is the only international airport in the Maldives, located on Airport Island, 2km northeast of the capital Male' Island, and is the gateway into the Maldives. With the growing tourism industry in the Maldives, the existing airport is saturated with 4 million passengers per year, which is seriously affecting the economic and social development of the Maldives, and the airport is in urgent need of expansion in size. In order to realise the dream of all Maldivians - a new runway parallel to the original runway, a new flight area rating from 4E to 4F, to meet the requirements of A380 and other F class aircraft, to further enhance the airport's service capacity, to give the country a pair of wings, and to allow the Republic of Maldives to make an all-round leap forward.

In 2017, the Maldives Government officially launched the Villana International Airport renovation and expansion project to build a Class F runway, taxiway and apron to meet the operation of A380 aircraft, as well as supporting cargo buildings, fuel depots and shore protection works through the new technology of sand blowing (coral sand) reclamation, with a new runway length of 3,400m, a blow-proof apron and end safety zone of 300m at each of the north and south ends, for a total length of 4,000m, of which the existing land area 1000m, and the other areas will be newly reclaimed. The completed runway will become a beautiful scenery on the Indian Ocean, which exceeds international standards in terms of performance and quality.

Beijing Jing Hangan Airport Engineering Co., Ltd. is responsible for the aviation lighting system and supporting facilities of the runway and taxiway within the new flight area of the airport (including the Class I precision near lighting system at the north and south ends of the new runway), the lighting system renovation project involved in the conversion of the existing runway into a parallel taxiway, the east and west apron lighting and electrical system project, the aviation lighting monitoring system project, the flight area communication and navigation project, the flight area security system project, the new north and south apron lighting and electrical system project. Flight area security system project, the new north and south two lighting stations and supporting facilities, etc. The project period is 26 months, from July 2017 to September 2019. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)