Mattala Rajapaksa Airport
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මත්තල රාජපක්ෂ ජාත්යන්තර ගුවන්තොටුපළ மத்தள ராஜபக்ச சர்வதேச விமான நிலையம் Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport Mattala Rajapaksa Airport |
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| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | VCRI |
| IATA code | HRI |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 7 m (23 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 18 km north of Hambantota |
| Street | B631 to Hambantota |
| Basic data | |
| opening | March 18, 2013 |
| operator | Airports & Aviation Services Ltd. |
| Start-and runway | |
| 05/23 | 3500 m × 30 m asphalt |
| year | Flight movements |
Passengers | Freight (in t) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 1514 | 36,147 | 20,000 |
| 2014 | 2984 | 20,474 | 69 |
| 2015 | 1044 | 6291 | 19th |
| 2016 | 1317 | 6207 | 328 |
| 2017 | 1418 | 16,720 | unknown |
| 2018 | |||
| 2019 | 1536 | 0 |
The airport Mattala Rajapaksa ( Sinhala මත්තල රාජපක්ෂ ජාත්යන්තර ගුවන්තොටුපළ , Tamil மத்தல ராஜபக்ஷ சர்வதேச விமான நிலையம் , English Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport , IATA code : HRI; ICAO code : VCRi) is an international airport in the south of Sri Lanka in Mattala, about 18 Kilometers north of the port city of Hambantota . The airport was built under the presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa with the support of the People's Republic of China and was intended as a leading infrastructure project in the country. However, the number of passengers and freight transport remained far below expectations after the opening of air traffic in 2013. In 2018, international scheduled air traffic was completely discontinued.
The airport is currently considered to be one of the largest investment ruins (English "white elephant" ) in Sri Lanka and was ridiculed as a " ghost airport " and the "emptyest airport in the world".
Building history
The airport was designed and built during Mahinda Rajapaksa's presidency (2005–2015). Several goals were pursued with the construction of the airport. A major goal was to relieve the previous Bandaranaike International Airport north of the capital Colombo . Together with the nearby southern port of Hambantota, which has also been expanded, an international traffic hub was to be built on Sri Lanka's southern coast to the Indian Ocean . Previous meteorological and climatic feasibility studies identified Mattala as a suitable location for a major airport. With the establishment of a traffic hub, expectations were associated with the economic development of the surrounding region. The expansion of the airport would lead to an increase in the number of businesses settling here, creating jobs and reducing widespread poverty in the region. An upturn in tourism in the southern region was also expected. The fact that President Rajapaksa came from the Hambantota district probably also played a role in the choice of location .
On November 11, 2009, construction work began on what will later be the airport site in Mattala. A loan agreement was signed between Sri Lanka and the People's Republic of China on December 23, 2009, according to which the latter provided a loan of US $ 209 million for the construction of the airport. The actual construction cost was US $ 243.7 million. Two interests seemed to meet in the project: on the one hand, the Sri Lankan interest in economic development, especially in the southern province, and on the other hand, the Chinese interest in expanding the trade routes in the Indian Ocean (“ Belt and Road ”).
Furnishing
The airport has a runway 3500 m long and 60 m wide, which is also suitable for the Airbus A380-800 . There are two taxiways , Alpha (code F) with 360 × 60 m and Bravo (code C) with 362.5 × 25 m. In addition, there is a taxiway measuring 370 × 60 m and an airport apron with 10 aircraft parking spaces. The area of the apron covers 73,500 m². In the first, completed expansion phase, the following facilities were available (the numbers projected for the second expansion phase in brackets): 10 international check-in counters (26), 2 domestic check-in counters (8), 3 baggage check-in / output carousels (9) and 2 passenger boarding bridges (28). In the first completed expansion phase, the airport had a capacity for one million passengers and an air cargo capacity of 45,000 metric tons per year.
business
The airport was officially opened on March 18, 2013. In the year it opened, around 36,000 passengers and 20,000 tons of air freight were registered (comparative figures for Colombo International Airport: 7.3 million passengers, 191,000 tons of air freight). In the following years these numbers decreased almost continuously. In addition, it was found that the vast majority of passengers only used the airport as transit. Despite almost 3,000 flights in 2014, the airport was only used by 20,474 passengers. After the opening, two international ( flydubai and Air Arabia ) and three national airlines offered regular flight connections. Flights that had been diverted from the destination Colombo airport also rarely landed (14 flights from March 2013 to November 2015, mainly due to bad weather). Little by little, the airlines stopped their connections to Mattala. All duty-free shops at the airport closed on June 1, 2016 . On June 12, 2018, flydubai ended its flight connections, with the result that the airport lost its last international flight connection. The reasons given for the discontinuation were unprofitable, but also problems at the airport due to frequent bird strikes. Cinnamon Air remained the only airline that continued to operate the airport on a regular basis , offering regular domestic flights with a Cessna 208B to Dickwella, Koggala, Kotte, and Colombo. In 2015, an audit report commissioned by the Sri Lankan government recommended expanding the economic infrastructure and tourism infrastructure (hotels, etc.) in the vicinity of the airport in order to transform the airport into an economically productive facility. The largely lacking economic and infrastructural environment in the vicinity of the airport was also cited as the main reason for the economic failure in other analyzes.
Financially, airport operations were increasingly in the red. In 2013 and 2014, revenues were 48 and 136 million Sri Lankan rupees (SLR), respectively, while ongoing operating costs were 2,153 and 2,865 million SLR, respectively. Starting in 2015, the debt to the Chinese lenders also had to be repaid in annual installments over a period of 15 years, which caused the state-owned operating company to find itself increasingly financially troubled. As the cargo building remained unused, it was temporarily rented out in 2015 for the storage of rice. The new deep-water port in Hambantota, which was also expanded with Chinese help - also a prestige project by Rajapaksa - by no means fulfilled the economic expectations placed in it, which is why the Sri Lankan government, which is under financial pressure, 70 percent of the shares in it for 1.12 in 2017 Leased US $ billion for 99 years to the Chinese state-owned company China Merchants Port Holdings (CM Port). Critics then spoke of a gradual sell-off of Sri Lanka to China.
In July 2016, it was surprisingly announced that the Indian State Airports Authority of India would take over 70 percent of the shares in the airport for US $ 225 million in a 40-year lease. The contract also included investment commitments at the airport. The motives for Indian participation remained unclear. However, it has been speculated that India was taking over the management of the unsuccessful airport primarily to prevent a Chinese takeover. In the event of a Chinese takeover, the People's Republic would have had a base on the Indian Ocean, consisting of a deep-water port and an international airport near the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent.
Waiting hall
in the airport reception building
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See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ CAA Annual Reports. Civil Aviation Authority, accessed May 1, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Chulanee Attanayake: Mattala: Attracting Business into a Lonely Airport. (pdf) In: ISAS Working Paper No. 314 December 20, 2018, accessed May 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Minister instructs to resume operations at Mattala Airport soon. Colombo Page, January 12, 2020, accessed May 1, 2020 (with numbers for 2019).
- ↑ Inside Sri Lanka's $ 240m 'ghost airport'. BBC News, June 1, 2017, accessed May 1, 2020 .
- ^ A b Wade Shepard: For Sale: The World's Emptiest International Airport. Forbes, June 18, 2016, accessed January 18, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c d SELECTION OF MATTALA AS THE ALTERNATIVE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT OF SRI LANKA AND ITS OPERATIONS. Report No. PES / PE / MA / 2015/02. (pdf) Auditor General's Department, February 2015, accessed May 1, 2020 .
- ↑ The goal is the world - A column by Theo Sommer. Zeit online, May 2, 2018, accessed on May 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Xi emphasizes high quality belt and road development. Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Germany, April 29, 2019, accessed on May 1, 2020 .
- ^ Runway Facilities. Airport website, accessed January 18, 2020 .
- ↑ Terminal Facilities. Airport website, accessed May 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Airport Facilities. Airport website, accessed May 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Shirajiv Sirimane, Hiran Seneviratne, Wismi Wijerathne: Mattala Rajapaksa Int'l Airport opens. Daily News, March 18, 2013, accessed January 18, 2020 .
- ↑ Mattala duty free shops closed. The Times of Sri Lanka, June 7, 2016, accessed May 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Sri Lanka's Mattala loses int'l ops as flydubai withdraws. ch-aviation.com, June 12, 2018, accessed January 18, 2020 .
- ↑ Why is hardly anyone using Sri Lanka's new airport? BBC News, June 1, 2017, accessed May 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Umesh Moramudali: The Hambantota Port Deal: Myths and Realities. the Diplomat, January 1, 2020, accessed on May 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Is Sri Lanka 'up for sale'? BBC News, May 29, 2017, accessed May 1, 2020 .
- ^ Sri Lanka to give India control of its loss-making airport in Hambantota. Scroll.in, July 6, 2018, accessed January 18, 2020 .
- ^ Tara Francis Chan: India is buying world's emptiest airport in its battle for territorial dominance with China. December 13, 2017, accessed May 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Bandula Sirimanna: Indian Airports Authority to take over Mattala Airport. Business Times, accessed May 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Where elephants live and rice is stored: This is the most unsuccessful airport in the world. Finanz100.de, December 13, 2017, accessed on May 1, 2020 .