The world’s emptiest airport cost £155 to build (Image: Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The £155million airport pitted as a major international hub is now better known as the world’s emptiest. With zero regular flights and less revenue than its electricity bill, the airport is grappling to find investors, but critics believe there is no saving the former Government’s expensive “vanity project”.
Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport opened in 2013, touted as an alternative to Sri Lanka’s Bandaranaike International Airport. But due to its location – right in the centre of an elephant habitat and next to a commercial port – few tourists ever visited, and it struggled to surpass even 40,000 annual guests.
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Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport opened in 2013 (Image: Getty Images)
The Mahinda Rajapaksa government behind the build said it would be able to handle a million passengers, 50,000 tons of cargo and 6,250 air traffic operations a year by 2028. However, despite their best efforts, targets were missed by a country mile.
In 2013, Mattala handled about 36,000 passengers, with hopes of attracting more than 160,000. In 2014, it was expected to draw over 171,000 passengers, but it handled about 40,000.
By June 2015, less than 5,000 passengers dripped through, after the new Maithripala Sirisena-Ranil Wickremesinghe government stopped attempts to boost passenger numbers.
The finances do not nearly add up. In 2014, the income was about $830,000 (£618,900), but they spent around $13million (£9.6million) on salary, maintenance, electricity and water the same year, reports The Diplomat.
Built in an elephant habitat and across the path of migratory birds, the airport also had a significant impact on the environment, and worsened human-elephant conflict at the access road.
The government originally said it would have capacity for 1million passengers per year (Image: Getty Images)
Gary Bowerman, an Asia travel, tourism and consumer analyst, suggested it was destined to fail.
“It was a vanity project from the outset by the former prime minister, after whom it is named, who borrowed heavily from China to fund its construction,” he told South China Morning Post.
He added: “It was sold on the basis of its proximity to the Hambantota port and Chinese developments around it, but it is a heavily commercial port without much cruise traffic.”
Part of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government’s Hambantota development plan, the first phase cost $209 million (£155million), of which a huge $190million (£141million) was from China Exim Bank.
Several governments have tried to revive it, and the National People’s Power (NPP) party has now invited investors to take over the airport under a 30-year agreement.
NPP has taken a different approach to previous governments, asking investors to look at the runway, land, port access and possible industrial uses, rather than just the airport. Effectively, Mattala could become an aviation-services and logistics estate, centered around an airport.
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
