Simple - there's no money. The people running things up until January 2015 spent/stole it all - nothing left but huge debts everywhere.

And if the current rulers borrow, they are faced with high interest rates.

Maybe another bond issue is in order.

to service the previous bonds ..

There is no money, only corruption, dodos running the country, no interest to develop aviation infrastructure, srilanka is on the right track with correct dosage of speed to head back to stone age.

end of story

They took a loan from Japan -.-

Thanks for the update. The site generally looks way better than the old one, however I prefer the old lotus BIA logo (as shown in the concept video of the new terminal). Hate how they ripped off the UL font for the new logo.

Mattala Airport to reopen to bring Chinese planes?

COLOMBO - Sri Lanka is aiming to become the best tourist hub in South East Asia and will look to attract more than 2.5 million tourists by 2016, an official said here on Thursday.

The country's new Tourism Minister John Amaratunga who was sworn into Sri Lanka's national government last week, said that Sri Lanka was looking at expanding its tourist arrivals, especially from China and would make the island nation more tourist oriented.

"Firstly, we are trying to open the Mattala Airport and make it more feasible for Chinese planes to land and bring in more chartered planes from China," Amaratunga told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

Mattala Rajapakse Airport is situated on the country's southern coast of Hambantota and is the country's second-largest international airport.

"We are giving the fullest encouragement to the Chinese government and the Chinese people to come and visit Sri Lanka. And we want to assure and ensure their safety," the minister said.

"There are so many Chinese companies which have come to Sri Lanka. There are a number of Chinese hotels too. And the Chinese traffic to Sri Lanka has increased over the last couple of years."

China has become the biggest source of tourists to Sri Lanka in recent months, and the new government headed by President Maithripala Sirisena is now doing more to attract a larger crowd. Hotels are being prepared with more facilities for tourists and safety of the travelers is also being ensured.

However, Amaratunga said that there was room for further expansion in improving facilities and the government was aiming to do so.

"We have to get more oriented with the Chinese language. We must also have Chinese menus in the smaller places because when tourists arrive here they would not want to be confined only to the five star hotels," he said.

"We are also addressing the safety issue of our tourists as we have received a lot of complaints of harassment, especially in the beach bound areas. We have to control that. This government is very keen to ensure the safety of all our tourists who are arriving in Sri Lanka."

The government which was sworn into power after the ruling United National Party won the parliamentary election last month will also launch fresh advertising campaigns in China this year.

The government has remained firm that China would not be neglected and would continue to remain amongst its "priority markets."

The minister also dismissed recent reports stating that Chinese travelers spent less money in the island nation than western tourists, adding that Chinese travelers were one of the leading sources of foreign exchange in the island nation.

With Sri Lanka's tourism industry once being heavily scarred by civil conflict, the government is now aiming to attract more than 2.5 million tourists by 2016 and is set to launch fresh campaigns in many parts of the world.

"If all our programs go as planned I think we can go well above the 2.5 million mark, as we have mended our ties with the international community," Amaratunga said.

Mattala Airport is already been served by Flydubai which is currently operating daily flights from Dubai. It will be nice if HRI attract the charter flights but SriLankan should be flying the schedule flights to the destinations as nonstop from Colombo.

I am wondering why UL is not interested in turboprob-aircraft operation between Ratmalana and the Maldives and South India ?

RML is grossly under-utilized. It should be developed in to a city airport along the lines of LCY or LGA to handle regional traffic and accommodate single aisle jets (A32X and B73X genre).

Vast majority of tourist coming to SL travels to the Southern beaches and RML could be the perfect gateway.

Ruway could be extended towards the marshy land direction to accommodate small-mid sized jets.

ATR is a better option to connect regional destinations from RML. Our SL aviation industry should be speeding up in making decisions. We are loosing the market.

ATR is the only viable craft, for turbo props, with large capacity, other than Dash 8

Well, introducing a new type, new endorsements, new spares .. why bother, when you can fill an 320 ?

And if i recall, the 320s are primarily also uplifting cargo, with the turbo props will be hard to accomplish.

plus, atleast one private investor interested in Sri Lankan Aviation expressed fears of the Air Force and their Heli Tours Ramping up competition. Who wants to compete with State Air Force, who can fly cheaper ?

Is HRI being used a training base for SriLankan Airlines.

The Airport Express Air and Rail Co. Ltd. (AEARC) of Malaysia will start an electric train system between Negombo and Colombo whilst a mega township is also planned with a combined investment of $ 450 million.

The proposed project is comprised of a 42 km stretch of rail track between Negombo and Colombo Fort. Two terminuses have already been identified to be built both at the Katunayake Airport and Colombo Fort. The track will be comprised of two parallel railway lines between the destinations.

The main land plots of ‘Eco City’ are planned to be developed within 2015. Overall development is expected to be completed by 2018

PM Wickramasinghe is due to sign the Contract for 2 nd phase of BIA at Tokyo / Japan tomorrow.

Japan lends Sri Lanka $375m for new terminal

According to the Airport & Aviation Services (Sri Lanka), the present capacity stands at 6m passenger movements per annum. The new two-tier passenger terminal with separate arrivals and departures passenger flows will be opened in two stages, with the first scheduled to open in early 2017.