SriLankan to operate flights from Mattala airport to Maldives
This announcement was made following a raft of special concessions declared by the Sri Lankan government .
By
Azuhaar Abdul Azeez
Sri Lanka’s national airline ‘SriLankan Airlines’ will make one scheduled flight every week from Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) to the Velana International Airport (VIA) from October 14.
MRIA is an international airport opened in 2013 in the town of Mattala, 18 km from Hambantota. It is the third international airport in the country, but due to low income generated from the airport, it has been criticised and even dubbed "The World's Emptiest International Airport" by Forbes in 2016.
“This once a week operation will gradually be increased to twice a week in the extensive plan of developing Mattala. This is one step of many”, Shehan Sumanasekara, Director-Chief Operations (all airports) at Airport & Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) said.
This announcement was made following a raft of special concessions declared by the Sri Lankan government for international airlines to operate from MRIA.
The concessions include:
- A 60 US dollar exemption from the airport emigration charge for two years for international airlines which have not operated flights to Mattala airport before
- Discounts on landing and parking charges for four years.
SriLankan Airlines makes three flights to VIA daily now, via their Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo. They also make a flight to Gan International Airport down south in Addu Atoll in the Maldives daily from their Bandaranaike International Airport.
