Miles high in Mattala!

Dr. Tilak S. Fernando

Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) whose foundation stone was laid on 19 November 2009 at a cost of US $ 209 million, with Peoples Republic of China as the main contributor, will be opened on March 18 2003 as a fully pledged International Airport with all requisite facilities and features to serve the South, Uva and Sabaragamuwa areas of Sri Lanka.

Mattala, serving as the alternate International Airport to Bandaranaike International Airport, (BIA) Katunayake, has been designed in a land of 800 hectare in Stage 1, out of an overall area of 2000 hectares of land allocation. During Stage II, remaining 400 hectares of land will be utilised for the main airport infrastructure.

Several novel features of Mattala Airport consist of 45 meter high control tower seen as a striking,cutting-edge design. Another novel feature associated with Mattala can be regarded as employing the first-ever woman Air Traffic Controller (Krishanthi Tissera) creating history in Sri Lanka. The new airport is expected to handle one millions passenger arrivals in the first year and by 2018 up to 5 million. The air cargo handling facility during the first phase of the operation will be up to 30,000 metric tons expected to increase up to 45,000 metric tons per annum during the second stage. It also consists of two aero bridges and ten parking bays (aprons) for aircraft. .

In stage II, Mattala Airport expects to handle 5 million passengers, 150,000 metric tons of cargo and 45,000 aircraft movements per annum with an increase in number of parking bays for aircraft up to 20 and Aero Bridges up to 15.

Mattala Airport is equipped with a paved Runway airstrip of 3500 meters in length ((Orientation - 050/ 230, code F) and 75 meters 7.5 m broad shoulders (paved) on either side which enables any large aircraft such as A-380 Airbus to land safely. The air distance between Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) and Mattala (MRIA) is 90.8 nautical miles.

An airport, in general terms, is a site where aircraft take off and land. It should at least have runway for a plane to take off and land. Depending on the type of airport certain services such as operational, air control, passenger facilities, restaurants, public conveniences, lounges, emergency services etc become vital components which have been accommodated at Mattala.

New Openings

Recently Airport and Aviation Services Ltd launched a website at the Mattala Airport control tower with the participation of Chairman Prasanna Wickremasuriya, Information and Media Ministry Secretary Dr. Charitha Herath, ANCL Chairman Bandula Padmakumara, Director General Information Prof. Ariyaratne Athugala, the first-ever woman Air Traffic Controller Krishanthi Tissera and other officials .

Mattala Airport is expected to open up an entire new line of industry and enterprise, according to Aviation Services Ltd Chairman Prasanna Wickremesuriya. These will include IT parks, and a transhipment hub that links to the Hambantota harbour among other things, and a bio-diversity theme park.

It will also attract those tourists who would like to tour the part of the country that includes coastal beaches and other areas of interest such as national parks and eco tourism as opposed to visiting busy cities like Colombo and ‘concrete jungles’ which they are accustomed to in the West.

Mattala is open for or international aircraft under an open skies policy. From day one it is expected to attract certain international carriers such as Air Arabia to sign up, while SriLankan Airlines have drawn up a wide ranging itinerary from Mattala.

In General

Usually international airports have runways approx. 2000 meters (6000 ft or longer) made out of asphalt or concrete. Heavier the aircraft longer the runway would be for landing and takeoff. The longest runway for commercial flights in the world is at Qamdo Bangda Airport in China which has a length of 5,500 m (18,045 ft) and the widest paved runway is at Ulyanovsk Vostochny Airport in Russia with 105 m (344 ft) wide.

Most of the world’s airports are owned by local, regional, or national government bodies who in turn lease those to private corporations for operational purposes. British Airports Authority originally operated eight of the national major commercial airports until they were privatised in the late 1980s and in 2006 Spanish Ferrovial Consortium took over and cut down their operation to five.

Germany’s Frankfurt Airport is managed by the quasi-private firm Fraport. The Berlin Brandenburg Airport is publicly financed by the states of Berlin and Brandenburg and the Federal Republic of Germany.

Indira Gandhi International Airport and Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in India are operated by GMR Group through a joint venture, while Bengaluru International Airport and Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport are controlled by GVK Group. The rest of India’s airports are managed by the Airports Authority of India.

In the US generally commercial airports are operated directly by government entities or government-airport authorities. Most airports in Canada are owned and operated by individual legal authorities or they are municipally owned.

Structure

Airports are divided into landside and airside areas. Landside areas include parking lots, public transportation train stations and access roads whereas Airside areas include all subdivision accessible to aircraft, including runways, taxiways and ramps.

Passengers on commercial flights access airside areas through terminals where they can purchase tickets, clear security check, or claim luggage and board aircraft through gates. The waiting areas which provide passenger access to aircraft are typically called concourses, although this term is often used interchangeably with terminal.

Airports with international flights have customs and immigration facilities. International flights often require a higher level of physical security, although in recent years, many countries have adopted the same level of security for international and domestic travel.

Some airport structures include on-site hotels built within or attached to a terminal building. Airport hotels have grown popular due to their convenience for transient passengers and easy accessibility to the airport terminal. Many airport hotels also have agreements with airlines to provide overnight lodging for displaced passengers. These are new options available to entrepreneurs who are eyeing Mattala Area in time to come.

Cargo and freight services

In addition to people, airports move cargo around the clock. International airports have extra storage for export cargo after customs clearance and prior to loading on the aircraft. Similarly off loaded import cargo are bonded before the consignee decides to take delivery.

In Frankfurt, Amsterdam (Schiplol), In UK, Heathrow, Gatwick and Stanstead (outer London) are located near railway trunk routes for seamless connection of multimodal transport. It is also common to connect an airport and a city with rapid transit, light rail lines or other non-road public transport systems, for instance the AirTrain JFK at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and the Silver Line T at Boston’s Logan International Airport by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). Such a connection lowers the risk of missed flights due to traffic congestion. Large airports usually have access also through controlled-access highways (‘freeways’ or ‘motorways’) from which motor vehicles enter either the departure loop or the arrival loop.

Airport construction boomed during the 1960s with the increase in jet aircraft traffic. Runways were extended out to 3,000 m (9,800 ft).

The fields were constructed out of reinforced concrete using a slip-form machine that produces a continual slab with no disruptions along the length.

The early 1960s also saw the introduction of jet bridge systems to modern airport terminals, an innovation which eliminated outdoor passenger boarding. These systems became commonplace in the United States by the 1970s. Airports are uniquely represented by their IATA airport code and ICAO airport code and when the whole world is seemingly reduced to one single global village air transport will grow and movement of people too will increase.