Mattala open 24/7
The second international airport in the country at Mattala, despite the recent drama of partial shut downs, will continue to remain operational 24 hours, the state airport management company said on Friday.
Airport and Aviation Services Ltd. Chairman Ananda Wimalasena told the Business Times that they had not made any decision to shut down the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) as it was declared as the second international airport.
Sri Lanka was working on the establishment of a second international airport or an alternative airport in the country for which the MRIA was constructed.
He noted that “we can’t close it down just like that,” adding “we will continue to operate it at a very low scale.” Due to the international air transport agreements binding on the country authorities would not be able to even partially shut down the airport. In this respect, the MRIA runway and the airport would be operational 24 hours despite recent comments even from Minister Arjuna Ranatunga claiming it would be shut down at night time.
Mr. Wimalasena said “there is no such decision” to shut down the airport even partially, noting that the staff and airport area use would be scaled down but just sufficient for the MRIA to be operational 24 hours.
Meanwhile he pointed out that the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) Phase II expansion scheduled to conclude by 2020 to increase the apron area and development of gates and increase terminal capacity upto 15 million passengers from the existing 5 million was proceeding.
Mr. Wimalasena said they are trying to finalise the funding arrangement mainly from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) amounting to approximately Rs.85 billion or Yen 70 billion.