COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s government on Sunday (Apr 26) issued a call for investments in a currently loss-making airport, after a 30-year lease agreement with an Indo-Russian joint venture failed to take off.
Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport, built with Chinese loans near a wildlife sanctuary on the island’s southern coast, has no regular flights.
The small airport has failed to generate enough revenue to cover even electricity bills since opening in 2013, and has been a running sore on state coffers.
Calling for expressions of interest from investors, the government said the facility offers “untapped potential for growth opportunities… for exotic tourism development and strategic investment”.
In 2024, the Sri Lankan government announced it had awarded a 30-year lease to a joint venture between India’s Shaurya Aeronautics and Russia’s Airports of Regions Management Company, but the plan never materialised.
The airport is named after former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, who borrowed heavily from China for infrastructure projects that quickly became commercial failures.
Debts to China are partly blamed for an unprecedented financial crisis that prompted Sri Lanka to default on its US$46 billion foreign debt in 2022.
Since receiving an International Monetary Fund bailout early the following year, Sri Lanka has sought to privatise a host of unprofitable state-owned enterprises, with no success.
