Sri Lanka is evaluating 19 proposals to bring the loss-making Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport into commercial operation, with a formal request for proposals expected within two months.
Deputy Minister of Ports and Civil Aviation Janitha Ruwan Kodithuwakku told EconomyNext the submissions are under assessment.
“We have received 19 proposals. So, it’s being evaluated right now. I think within the next one to two months, we’ll be able to float an RFP once the qualified bidders are selected,” he said.
The count follows the expressions of interest process the Ports Ministry opened earlier this year, which set a June 8 deadline and split the call into airside and landside operations.
A second attempt
The renewed push comes after an earlier effort to hand over management collapsed. The government had entered a management agreement with an Indian and Russian joint venture to operate the airport under a 30-year lease, aiming to make it profitable through transit flights and specialised cargo operations. That deal was later cancelled after both firms were blacklisted by the US State Department.
Opened in March 2013 as Sri Lanka’s second international gateway, Mattala was built at a cost of about 209 million US dollars, funded largely by loans from the Export-Import Bank of China.
It was designed to handle one million passengers a year and has a 3,500-metre runway able to take aircraft as large as the Airbus A380. Planners envisaged it as a catalyst for tourism in the Southern Province, a logistics hub, and a sea-air transshipment link with the nearby Magampura Mahinda Rajapaksa Port, which is leased to China for 99 years.
Despite that infrastructure, the airport has consistently lost money and has been widely labelled the world’s emptiest international airport.
