Air Arabia suspends flights to Mattala
Air Arabia, the only international carrier that flew to Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA), is believed to have either cancelled or temporarily suspended its flights to the newly built second international airport in southern Sri Lanka.
The website of the Sharjah based airline no longer provides reservation facilities to or from MRIA and the airline’s destination map only contains Colombo as its sole Sri Lankan destination.
When contacted by Mirror Business, Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Dr. Ravindra Ruberu, cited low levels of passenger traffic as the primary reason behind disruptions to the flight schedule.
“Reports that Air Arabia has completely stopped flights are false. We have signed agreements with them that state that they will fly to Mattala however the frequency of flights is for them to decide based on the levels of passenger traffic”
A website called airlineroute.net reported that Air Arabia has cancelled its flights to MRIA from May. When queried, Nawaloka Aviation Pvt Ltd General Manger, Ramly Vilcassim, General Sales Agent (GSA) for Air Arabia in Sri Lanka, told Mirror Online that Air Arabia is operating at MRIA without any disruptions.
But he declined to comment on the frequency of flights. CEO of Mattala Airport, Derick Karunaratne was unavailable for comment
When questioned about frequency of flights and passenger arrivals into Mattala, several officials from government owned service provider, Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Limited declined to comment.
(Courtesy: DM Online)
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Is this in retaliation to Azath Salley’s arrest? Mr Salley was a definite threat to society with a published view of taking up arms.
The Defense Secretary has explained the Government’s action in this matter.
In November 2013, the Royal British Aircraft bearing the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Canterbury will descend in the Mattala Rajapaksa Airport. All other head of states including UK’s Cameron, Australia’s Gillard, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh will land in their supersonic aircraft under the watchful eyes of the international media.
This is confirmation that Mattala is a truely white elephant just like the harbour at Hambantota. Is everyone in the mother country a bunch of idiots to not to have stopped these white elephants even before their conception? What a waste of money! Only China benefited from these ill conceived projects. The poor masses are expected to cop it sweet with exorbitant electricity tariffs as an example.
Now Mihin Air and Sri Lankan Airlines can exclusively Fly to Mattala.
They can have the whole market to the south.
Should Fly Direct from Beijing to Mattala. There are a Billion Chinese in China.
Raja,
Mattala is not an elephant; it is an international airport. There are many elephants living in the adjacent jungles. At times, they go for a stroll on the runaway, not a big deal.
Channel Tunnel between the UK and Paris we such a white elephant to begin with, but now has become highly profitable.
If anybody says both the Hambantota harbour and Mattala airport are waste of money even before they properly begin to establish and function, it is baseless rubbish. What I have read in the international business media in relation to the potential of the new harbour is quite different to the blog 2.
I believe after 10years time one will have sufficient facts to decide whether these have been a waste of money (as long as they have been managed efficiently).
Indra,
Sweet dreams. Keep dreaming!
Oscar,
What about the monkeys being electrocuted on the HV power line? At least some are gainfully employed to kill the birds coming to the adjacent tank to quench their thirst and the ones employed to keep the peacocks away from the runway. It will be big news when a bird strike brings down an airliner. It is a matter of time. No wonder the other international airlines are keeping away in fear of possible bird strikes. As Amarasiri suggests authorities should strike a deal with the Chinese for discounted flights from Beiging to Mattala and vice versa. After all it was the Chinese who built Mattala.
Don’t you have anything based on facts actually? Who is dreaming?
yes chandini pera you are right, big heads can only land in mattala airport not for ordinary people as far as BIA close.
raja you are right.what these idiots know?
yes we are saying that harbour and airport at ham are waste of much gained chinese gov. increasing more n more taxes and applying them to the publics.
noracholai power plants are failure, some boilers were blasted n some chinese workers were killed. its entirely failure, they are not getting entire benifit (out come) from they as aspected but has to pay the whole interest monthly for that project offered billion dollars.
so without income who would pay these interest? will chinese gov have any concern about our nationals or publics? will they show their sympathy to us?
the unique answer is NO. whatever it is or who ever it is , should pay the interest,and that is the agreement.
so we are here to pay the interest even not the rulers.innocent publics wil face every problems.
Indra,
Both Britain and France had a commitment economically /financially to make the channel tunnel work. Additionally the pride of the two countries were at stake thus forcing them to make it work. This is not the situation in our mother country where different powers/egos are at work. Why could they not have upgraded the airport at Ratmalana to international standards and to rename it to suit to ensue their wishes/egos. The harbour at Hambantota is virtually man made. It is not deep enough to cater for large ships. The flimsy attempt to make it deep by blasting rock after impounding cost a fortune and still does not meet intended purposes and thus is and for ever be a white elephant. Thus you have to continue dreaming unless you have some miracle means to deepen the harbour and kill all wildlife around Mattala. Good luck. Sweat dreams.
Oscar,
So you reckon a solitary elephant is no problem in going for a walkabout on the runway. Then the same freedom should be given to monkeys, peacocks, rhinos and the odd human lunatic. You ought to have your head examined!
If the waiting for a reasonable time and seeing is dreaming, I have happily chosen that.
Every single magnificent human made structure on this earth from pyramids to the current tallest buildings had been a dream in somebody’s mind before they physically took shape. The matter is they had the courage to embark on something than sitting in a armchair like many of the others.
By the way some excerpts from the channel tunnel website is “Although the government decided it would have nothing to do with the funding of the project, Margaret Thatcher went on record as saying she had no reservations in the project being independently subsidised. In 1985, four submissions were proposed:(http://channeltunnel.org.uk/history.htm)
I have been in Britain since even before the fist lump of soil removed to dig the Channel tunnel. So I perfectly know what went on.
Indra,
Now I see where you are coming from. Remember people living in glass houses should not throw stones. You live in the UK but not me. Our future generations are mortgaged to repay the large loans to the Chinese for ever due to someone’s greed. How can you compare the channel tunnel to Hambantota Port and Mattala Airport? Remember many in the west have branded our beloved mother country as a failed nation for very obvious reasons. We are a heavily indebted nation unlike England and France. Having lived in one of them for a long time you know how true it is. Even those so called western countries are currently struggling with poor economic climate in the west. The motherland’s priorities have to be different. Current needs are far more than the unsustainable ill planned infrastructure with large sums of borrowed money at highly inflated rates. Even the poor animals around Mattala are not spared. The Chinese are laughing all the way! They are looking for suckers to invest their large cash reserves not only in Srilanka but in other parts of the world as well. Look at the poor living standards of average people in the country. A 65% increase in the electricity tariff is just one example! How could one justify this?