By: Staff Writer
Colombo (LNW): Sri Lanka’s Mattala Airport has lost a billion rupees so far in 2023, Ports and Airports Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva told parliament.
“When you take 2023, the aviation earnings have been Rs. 54 million, and non-aviation earnings have been Rs. 109 million,” Minister de Silva said.
The total earnings are Rs168.8 million. The full expense is Rs1.2 bn rupees.”“The loss is about a billion rupees.”
The airport was built with a 1.3 billion yuan loan (189 million dollars) with a 2 percent interest rate from the Exim Bank of China payable in 15 years, he said.
“That was a concessionary loan.”Another 4.0 billion rupees was borrowed from state-run National Savings Bank though 15 year bond, which also had a 2 percent interest rate, he said.
he latest report issued by the National Audit Office states that the operational cost of Mattala International Airport has exceeded 2 billion rupees, but that cost is about twenty times more than the income.
The report also shows that the amount of more than 36.56 billion rupees spent for the construction of this airport has not been used effectively.
Mattala Airport’s net loss after tax in 2021 was 4 billion rupees and the net loss after tax from 2017 to 2021 is more than 2 billion rupees, according to the heads of the audit department.
The audit report states that although the expected annual passenger capacity of the airport is one million, only 91,747 passengers have arrived in the last five years and only 2,396 flights have taken place in the airport in the last five years.
It further states that the company had paid more than 2.6 billion rupees as annual loan installment including interest for the loan of 190 million US dollars taken for the construction of the airport.
The International Airport was opened for operations on 18 March 2013. The Airports and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Company Ltd. is in charge of its operations.
