Sri Lanka’s second international airport, in its deep southern district, Mattala airport is in operation without any flights being grounded amid the tourism off season, a top aviation official said.
The island nation is in the process of handing over the $209 million Chinese-funded and built Mattala Airport to a consortium between Shaurya Aeronautics Pvt Ltd of India and Airports of Regions Management Company of Russia.
Mattala airport has never made any profit since operations started in 2013, and has incurred a loss of 3 billion rupees annually.
“There are no flights now and our staff is idling,” Athula Kalgetiya, Chairman of state-owned Airport & Aviation Services Sri Lanka Private Ltd told reporters on Monday (29).
“We have to keep the staff because it’s a requirement to run the airport even if there is no flight. So we are losing now also.”
Kalgetiya said the airport was active with 2-3 daily flights in Sri Lanka’s peak tourism season mainly from Ukraine and Russia.
The airport was once dubbed the “world’s emptiest airport” because of a lack of flights. It was started in 2013 under former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa, who borrowed heavily for post-war infrastructure in his second tenure of 2010-2015.
The island nation is in the process of handing over the Airport to a consortium between Shaurya Aeronautics Pvt Ltd of India and Airports of Regions Management Company of Russia for 30 years.
Kalgetiya said the government expects 400,000 passengers annually in the fourth year of the operation.
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