Flying UAE from Mattala Rs. 20,000 cheaper than VCBI

There will be a saving of around 20,000 rupees for the people who are residing in South , South East, if they fly to Sharjah UAE from Mattala (MRI) .

Air Arabia return ticket is 999 AED ( Rs. 35,000/- ) between Sharjah and Mattala. (Starting from 18th this month, 2 flights per week)

From Sharjah to Colombo (KAT) it is 1333 AED (Rs. 46,650/-)

(Note: above are April fares)

With the reducing cost for local transport (van) from your home to Katunayaka and back ( usually with the whole lot of family members and friends) your total saving will be Approx .20,000/- to 25,000/- or even more.

yes men , i too saw this.
should plan it through Mattala, no traffic on that road as well.

Mattala over Bandaranayake airport . Is coming true already?

I don’t know why we needed a second international Airport in place like Hambantota. It should be some in North Kurunegal/Matale (easy access from North,most east, Kurunegala & Kandy.). Beside that Kandy is the second largest city and Kurunegala is 4 or 5 largest in the country.
A person in East, North or Kandy has to travel a longway before even see the airport.

Are we planning to export wild animals from Yala?

Development should not be concentrated in already somewhat developed areas.It may also worsen the matters related to high density population in those areas.
So the construction of both harbour and airport in Hambantota and Mattala is good stratergy in long term.Anyaway I also know the immediate cause for harbour and airport in those area is political.

Posted on February 15th, 2013
Embassy of Sri Lanka Press Release
The Embassy of Sri Lanka in Washington, DC is organizing a special flight to arrive at the new Mattala International Airport during the Inauguration Ceremony on March 18, 2013. We invite all of you to join this group flight and be part of this monumental event in Sri Lanka’s aviation history.

Travelers departing from the United States can reach Dubai from any of the destinations in which Emirates operates in the USA (Washington DC, New York, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle). They will depart the United States on March 16th, and the group will meet in Dubai and then travel to Sri Lanka on a special flight arranged by Emirates. International travelers are very welcome to join this group as well, and they can depart from their own countries and meet in Dubai for the group flight. The special flight will depart from Dubai for Mattala International Airport on the morning of March 18th and arrive during the Inauguration Ceremony, which will broadcast live.

After the official ceremony, travelers will have 2 different options:

Option #1 - Once the ceremony ends, travelers can be transported by luxury buses to Colombo free of charge, and then plan to return on their own schedule departing from Katunayake International Airport. These travelers will only pay for the flight, which will be discounted and cost less than a typical Emirates flight.

Option #2 - For visitors interested in touring Sri Lanka, the Embassy will coordinate with travel agents to arrange a 10 day tour in Sri Lanka. Travelers can plan to depart from Katunayake International Airport on approximately March 27th or they can further extend their time in Sri Lanka as they wish. These travelers will pay for the flight, which will be discounted and cost less than a typical Emirates flight. They will also pay for hotels, transport, and accommodations for the tour, and the Embassy is currently working on arranging a special price.

All interested parties are highly encouraged to join this special trip to witness this historic occasion for the opening of the 2nd international airport in Sri Lanka. Please contact the Embassy to make reservations as soon as possible, as there is limited capacity and many spots have already been filled.

In addition to Sri Lankan-Americans, this group flight already includes ambassadors, diplomats, travel writers, journalists, business delegations, government officials, and people traveling from other countries outside the United States. Interested parties both in the US and outside the US should contact the Embassy by February 25th.

Please sign up here on the Embassy’s website or contact Ms. Rushani at 2024834025 or rushani@slembassyusa.org
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2013/02/15/special-flight-from-usa-to-mattala-international-airport-inauguration-in-sri-lanka/

UKboy wrote:I don’t know why we needed a second international Airport in place like Hambantota. It should be some in North Kurunegal/Matale (easy access from North,most east, Kurunegala & Kandy.). Beside that Kandy is the second largest city and Kurunegala is 4 or 5 largest in the country.
A person in East, North or Kandy has to travel a longway before even see the airport.

Are we planning to export wild animals from Yala?

This is called Miracle of Asia.. Dont interfere with their dreams

Hambantota used to be an ancient port city. It is also closer to main shipping lines.Instead of all the development taking place central to Colombo it is better that it takes place in the South. After all it was the region which saw the birth of two insurgencies with the slogan "කොළඹට කිරි අපිට කැකිරි".

slstock wrote:Mattala over Bandaranayake airport . Is coming true already?

Mattala Rajapaksa International (VCRI) over Colombo Bandaranayaka International (VCBI)

I can clearly understand why we need a harbour in Hambantota but an airport?

People in Hambantota can reach Katunayake via expressway or future train line. But why entire people in Sri Lanka have to go that far to get onboard to an aircraft?
That’s a weird idea.
Hambantota should develop as a port city not as a financial hub. Airport is not an important part of a port city.

Also Yala covers a vast majority of the area of the right side of Hambantota

UKboy wrote:I can clearly understand why we need a harbour in Hambantota but an airport?

People in Hambantota can reach Katunayake via expressway or future train line. But why entire people in Sri Lanka have to go that far to get onboard to an aircraft?
That’s a weird idea.
Hambantota should develop as a port city not as a financial hub. Airport is not an important part of a port city.

Also Yala covers a vast majority of the area of the right side of Hambantota

No doubt Katunayake should function as usual because majority of the people who regularly go abroad live in Colombo.
And I also agree that Yala should be protected.

Mattala will be more useful for cargo traffic.

There are many export oriented fruit farms in South. Today I met a such party who grow fruits in Thunkama area.
At present, they transport the products by road all the way to Homagama , do the packaging and then transport them in cooler trucks to Katunayaka . At Katunayaka, fruits are stored in the coolrooms maintained by SriLankan cargo.

Shorten transport time and cost, increased shelf life, free port facilities etc. at Mattala will give very impressive opportunity for this kind of entrepreneurs to market their products at more competitive prices internationally and to expand their business to bring money to the country. I hope many newcomers will start export related agri services in the area.

At the moment I work with a party who are exploring the potential of running coolroom facilities at Mattala to support the exporters. Most of the hill country farmers who grow flowers, vegis are also to get easy and fast access to Mattala than to Katunayaka to send their products to Middle East and beyond. Get a map and see how close Welimada-Bandarawela to Mattala than Katunayake.

But Chinwi,
Is this a large business to have a dedicated airport?
also, has this potential to grow in large
answer is NO for both. Country like us has no future in agriculture.we have extreamly limited land mass for everything from tourism , living, forest,a limited agriculture...etc

I cant remember the central part of the country was in plan for 2nd airport under any government. Mattala was originally planned some where in Monaragala under previous UNP regime.

With available facts I can't say Hambanthota development is totally political project since we can see the return of investments.
From general understanding I believe that those new projects at Hambanthota definitely will be success.
From our history:
When President JR accelerated Mahaweli, most negative minders said the why we are giving water to jungles. And describe as white elephant project. Talked about billion of rupee commissions...
Hmmm.... Can you ever think, because of that magnificent project we raised our nation to great height by defeating world ruthless terrorists.

seek wrote:I cant remember the central part of the country was in plan for 2nd airport under any government. Mattala was originally planned some where in Monaragala under previous UNP regime.

There could be some technical reasons for this.

1) In an event of bad weather at KAT , you have to divert the traffic to somewhere else.

2) At the moment all flights coming to Sri Lanka bring additional fuel to fly Chennai as there is no facility to land anywhere else in Sri Lanka.

3) This is one of the main reasons for going for a second airport.

4) Note: With the opening of MRI (VCRI) they can bring more payload thus reduce unit costs.

5) Puttalam, Kurunegala and Kandy areas located West to the mid country mountainous range, get same monsoon winds and cloud cover with Katunayaka and we know the entire area get heavy downfall in SW rainy days.

6) As such, in a severe weather situation another airport located in the same weather region is useless.

7) Going towards Kandy, you cannot find flat lands and enough open area to design a clear approach, thus cost will be very much higher if we construct a big airport with 11,000 ft runway.

8 ) Minneriya / Hingurakgoda was in the list sometimes ago. People were on alert for losing their developed lands and buildings. Recently there was a protest for extending Sigiriya runway by archeologists and general public. As 'seek' said Moneragala was a very good location in the list.

9) Actually the original work started to build this new airport in Weerawila extending the present runway and acquiring thousands of acres of rich farm lands of right bank of Lunugamwehera scheme. Strong protests aroused because the paddy lands, roads and buildings of the area were already developed using billions of foreign loans. The site was then shifted to Mattala due to this protest . ( Some technical reasons also came in to light.- bird migration hazards etc. )

10) With or without all the above reasons, I think South got precedence.

let me put it in this way.

Any Economy which passes the Middle level per capita income ( US$ 4000 ) stuck due to the Economic concept called " Middle income trap " . You can witness this with lot of countries who passes the 4000 level but stuck due to high spending pattens and credit with in the economy.

So one ideal option to avoid the " Middle income trap " is to develop the country by operating couple of main economic centers to redistribute the wealth as much as possible.

This is what Gov. do at the movement.

When we take the Sri Lanka as a economy we have several places to build as economic centers. Colombo, Jafna, South and may be Anuradhapura side.

The best place at the movement is South since Jaffna will take another couple of years and surely we can do it with foreign subsidies.

When we take all these things in to consideration Maththala project is a must and also any country need a second international air port for sure to face uncertainties. If my information source is correct Gov will close the Katunayaka for some time for maintenance and expansions. It is stunning No??????????????????

These are the decision we would have taken around 1990...........s.

Arena wrote:let me put it in this way.

Any Economy which passes the Middle level per capita income ( US$ 4000 ) stuck due to the Economic concept called " Middle income trap " . You can witness this with lot of countries who passes the 4000 level but stuck due to high spending pattens and credit with in the economy.

So one ideal option to avoid the " Middle income trap " is to develop the country by operating couple of main economic centers to redistribute the wealth as much as possible.

This is what Gov. do at the movement.

When we take the Sri Lanka as a economy we have several places to build as economic centers. Colombo, Jafna, South and may be Anuradhapura side.

The best place at the movement is South since Jaffna will take another couple of years and surely we can do it with foreign subsidies.

When we take all these things in to consideration Maththala project is a must and also any country need a second international air port for sure to face uncertainties. If my information source is correct Gov will close the Katunayaka for some time for maintenance and expansions. It is stunning No??????????????????

These are the decision we would have taken around 1990...........s.

The middle income trap is created by household debt. Household debt impede rapid growth. The GDP in many countries expands due to growth in services which is driven by domestic consumption.

Chinwi, the Mattala airport success will be driven by volume of traffic in and out. Airports in many countries are listed on the stock exchange. You will see the insurance cost is very very high. If the airport takes the cost burden and charges airlines a very low fee well ......... . Airlines do not land without the insurance.

Think of it this way......What is the alternative airport sri lanka has? Where can you land a airbus or a 747? If a large plan cannot land at BIA due to bad weather or due to runway damage (only 1 runway) where do you land them?

Only option left is India. How do you move passengers to Sri lanka again? Bring them in small plans and land them at Ratmalana? Imagine the cost involved. Usually airlines consider all these factors. To my knowledge, ratmalana or any other airport in sri lanka cannot land large airplanes like 747 or airbus 340.

Other option is to expand BIA and give additional runways, but this does not help in case of bad weather.

I still wonder why an alternative seaport was built at Hambantota. This port is 15 years too late. Others like India (chennai port) has captured the business from us because of their future planning.

hawklk wrote:Think of it this way......What is the alternative airport sri lanka has? Where can you land a airbus or a 747? If a large plan cannot land at BIA due to bad weather or due to runway damage (only 1 runway) where do you land them?

Only option left is India. How do you move passengers to Sri lanka again? Bring them in small plans and land them at Ratmalana? Imagine the cost involved. Usually airlines consider all these factors. To my knowledge, ratmalana or any other airport in sri lanka cannot land large airplanes like 747 or airbus 340.

Other option is to expand BIA and give additional runways, but this does not help in case of bad weather.

I thought there was a runway for the Kfir. Anyway the profitability depends on the landing cost incurred and landing fees paid

rainmaker wrote:

hawklk wrote:Think of it this way......What is the alternative airport sri lanka has? Where can you land a airbus or a 747? If a large plan cannot land at BIA due to bad weather or due to runway damage (only 1 runway) where do you land them?

Only option left is India. How do you move passengers to Sri lanka again? Bring them in small plans and land them at Ratmalana? Imagine the cost involved. Usually airlines consider all these factors. To my knowledge, ratmalana or any other airport in sri lanka cannot land large airplanes like 747 or airbus 340.

Other option is to expand BIA and give additional runways, but this does not help in case of bad weather.

I thought there was a runway for the Kfir. Anyway the profitability depends on the landing cost incurred and landing fees paid

Kfir or Migs or any other fighter planes can even land on highways provided that there are little obstructions. In Suwden or Norway (not sure) they have designed highways so that their fighter planes can land and takeoff. But on the other hand you cannot risk to land a 747 or airbus in a small airport putting 150+ lives in danger and also risking damage to the plane, unless it is a emergency on board.

Larger the plane means large wingspan, can carry more weight, more fuel and more passengers, which means you need long runways to takeoff. And to my knowledge only BIA (now that we have Mattala) offers that and no other small airport in Sri Lanka can do the job.

The whole issue with Mattala is-

Is it a viable business proposal. Will it pay for its running costs and the interest and loan amortisation.

If Mattala is going to get even 4 or 5 flights a day, I don't see it being a viable business proposal. It will continue to be a drain on the budget like Sri Lankan, Mihin and so many other Govt ventures.

Any country can afford one or two pie-in- the- sky projects. Sri lanka has far too many.

We cant expect A huge Tragic at the start. It takes years and years to attract Air lines. May be 5 to 10 years. You cant value these investments using financial models. It is all about social impact and the overall economic impact. Do you think Gov. has gone crazy to invest billions and billions just vain.

They take all the required micro level data through Statistic department and central bank. I saw couple of drafted books Gov. requested which highlights all the micro level data such as Train delays in every station. At last they have suggested possible solution those are now being implemented slowly.

this is a massive process and we cant just crisis every thing. These are the project we missed in 1980-1990 era.

mahinda chintanaya.............

subba annagathayak.....

subba annagannimak....

" Do you think Gov. has gone crazy to invest billions and billions just vain."

mmmmm......?