Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport - all set for grand opening tomorrow

by Ranil Wijayapala

The grand opening of the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA), the second international airport by President Mahinda Rajapaksa will take place tomorrow at 10 am.

The first phase of the US$ 220 million project, with a capacity to handle one million air passengers per year will come into operation with international flights from tomorrow, Civil Aviation Minister Piyankara Jayaratne said on Friday.

He said the second phase of the MRIA will also commence following the opening of the first phase thereby increasing its capacity to handle five million passengers a year by 2015. “MRIA will not be a white elephant as claimed by some Opposition politicians but a fully operational airport from the day of its opening”, he said.

The new MRIA will take Sri Lanka to a higher level and it will become one of the major attractions for international flights as it could facilitate landing and taking off of the world’s biggest aircraft A380.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka which is among the first 20 institutions in the International Civil Aviation Organisation, regulates and assesses the civil aviation services and airports and finalised the certification on Friday that MRIA and its operations are in conformity with international standards by awarding the Aeronautical Service Provider Licence for the airport. Civil Aviation Authority officials said that they had awarded the licence to the MRIA as they were satisfied with the operational aspects and the standards of the services and facilities available thereafter through inspection of the project from the date of commencing construction work.

The process was completed by the Civil Aviation Authority after a night landing of a flight at the MRIA.Civil Aviation Services Ltd, Chairman Prasanna J. Wickremasuriya said that SriLankan, Fly Dubai and Air Arabia will commence flights from Mattala from tomorrow. More international airlines have expressed a keenness in starting flights to Mattala.