Sri Lanka flag-carrier ditches ex-president's 'vanity' airport

DailyMail – AFP, 17 Jn 2015

Cultural performers dance after the landing of a Sri Lankan airlines Airbus A-340
carrying President Mahinda Rajapakse, the first passenger at the new Mattala
 Rajapaksa International Airport in Mattala, on March 18, 2013 (Ishara S.Kodikara/
AFP/File)

  

Sri Lanka's national airline on Saturday announced it will stop all flights to the country's second international airport built and named after Mahinda Rajapakse, after he was defeated in last week's presidential elections.

Sri Lankan Airlines said operating flights via the Rajapakse International airport in the former president's home constituency of Hambantota was a huge drain on the already heavily debt-laden carrier.

The state-owned airline -- under new management after new President Maithripala Sirisena assumed office last week -- has decided to cut back uneconomical flights, including operations via Rajapakse International.

"This translates to an annual bottom line improvement of approximately $18 million," the airline said in a statement.

The airline is weighed down with debts of nearly $650 million.

Rajapakse opened his pet-project airport in March 2013, hoping it would become a new economic hub and act as a gateway to the island's southeast.

But the former government said in parliament that the airport earned 16,000 rupees ($125) in the month of May last year, recording a turnover less than that of a corner grocery store.

The only foreign airlines which operate services through the airport are UAE-based Fly Dubai and Rotana Jet Aviation.

Two budget carriers pulled out of the airport last year saying it was uneconomical due to insufficient traffic, but Sri Lankan Airlines maintained flights for political reasons, according to official sources.

Local media dismissed the airport as a vanity project for Rajapakse who had also named a sea port, a performing arts centre and a conventions centre after himself.

Built with funding from China's Export-Import Bank, the new $206 million facility could accommodate the Airbus A380, the biggest airliner in service. Attempts to attract an aircraft maintenance facility there had drawn a blank.

Last week's election was fought partly on allegations of corruption and waste by the Rajapakse administration, which is facing allegations of padding infrastructure projects to syphon off money.

Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse (C) waves outside a

polling station in his native town of Tangalla, about 195 kms from

the capital Colombo on January 8, 2015 (Photo by Lakruwan

Wanniarachchi / AFP)

Related Articles:

Sri Lanka's Rajapakse concedes election defeat

Sri Lanka's Rajapaksa facing electoral rebellion

Sirisena, who had also been No. 2 figure in the ruling Sri Lankan

 Freedom Party (SLFP), quit Sri Lanka's cabinet on Friday, accusing

President Rajapaska of moving the country "towards a dictatorship."

"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa, Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)

“…  I want you to watch some countries. I don't have a clock [this statement is Kryon telling us that there is no time frame on his side of the veil, only potentials]. I'll just tell you, it's imminent [in Spirit's timing, this could mean as soon as a decade]. I want you to watch some countries carefully for changes. You're going to be seeing changes that are obvious, and some that are not obvious [covert or assumptive]. But the obvious ones you will see sooner than not - Cuba, Korea [North], Iran, of course, and Venezuela. I want you to watch what happens when they start to realize that they don't have any more allies on Earth! Even their brothers who used to support them in their hatred of some are saying, "Well, perhaps not anymore. It doesn't seem to be supporting us anymore." Watch the synchronicities that are occurring. The leaders who have either died or are going to in the next year or so will take with them the old ways. Watch what happens to those who take their place, and remember these meetings where I described these potentials to you. …”