CHULA N.A. RAJAPAKSE MNZM FRCP (UK), FRACP, D. Med Rehab. (UK) RHEUMATOLOGIST

Home: C27, Trimmer 25 Graham Street Petone, Lower Hutt 5012 Telephone (04) 569 9390 or 027 4768797 8/8/25

Practice: High Street Specialists 577 High Street, Lower Hutt Telephone (04) 568 9875 Email:  cnarajapakse@gmail.com

To:

Hon Bimal Ratnayake
Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports & Civil Aviation,
Government of Sri Lanka.

bimal_r@parliament.lk.
+94 0773111226/+94 112785612

Dear Minister Ratnayake,

Subject

Exploiting The Facilities of Mattala AirPort To Enhance The Tourism Potential Of Australia and New Zealand  To Sri Lanka, Using  The Potential Offered By The 8 Emirates Air Bus A 380 Aircraft With Five Hundred Passengers per aircraft,  That Fly Daily From Melbourne ((EK 407,EK 409), Sydney (EK415,EK417,EK 413) & Brisbane (EK 431 & EK 436) and another Emirates A380 Daily From Auckland  (EK449), That Fly Over Mattala, Paying , Reportedly $2000/- Per Flight To Mattala, For Emergency  Landing Rights, Because  Mattala Is The Only Airport In Their Flight Path To Dubai, Once Past Australasian Airspace, That Has A Runway Long Enough To Land An A 380.

I was delighted view on television a few days ago of your comprehensive visit to the  Mattala airport and to hear your commitment also that of President Dissanayake, to explore potential for developing Mattala from a loss making AirPort to profitability.

As one who has lived in New Zealand for over thirty five years, and  one who has travelled many times in the Emirates A 380 flights above many times, where  the Emirates Flight Captain often pointed out the Mattala Airport when it was newly opened, I have for over ten years now, harboured the hope that Sri Lanka would negotiate with Emirates for at least one of these nine A380’s, take it in turn to drop off and pick up passengers from Mattala every night, at least as a pilot project possibly in the coming summer season, preceding it with adequate publicity in Aus  &NZ .

This will afford immense benefits to both Sri Lanka and it’s Tourism and the breadth  of clientel to Emirates so outmaneuver   it’s competitors  as follows:

Benefits To Sri Lanka

1. Australia and New Zealand offers Sri Lanka a potential tourism market of 25-30 million , most of whom are affluent as well as travel hungry, especially to warm climes, golden sand beaches. They have a great interest in the Cultural Heritage and Archeological remnants of the places they visit. Over the years, Bali, Thailand and most recently Vietnam have become popular destinations. This is largely driven by ease of access , being able to do so with one flight. However the very poor connectivity and absence of direct flights from these cities to Sri Lanka, has been a great draw back to Sri Lanka , preventing SL drawing tourists for Down Under. Poor connectivity is  a very common response we receive when we try to garner clients to visit Sri Lanka.
2. Emirates drop-offs as suggested would be an excellent way to fill this void, with very little additional cost to both Emirates and Sri Lanka with very little disruption to current flight schedules
3. Mattala is situated in many ways better than KIA to cater to tourism hot spots like Yala, South Western  Coast Hot Spots Like HIkkaduwa, Unawatuna, Weligam   Mirissa, Tangallae etc, less than two hours from Mattala , with the excellent motor way connections, with even Colombo being only three hours away..
4. Mattala, also provides far better access to the eastern coast destinations like, Arugambay, Pasi Kudah  . It also is less than two hours away from Ella, the very popular destination for young travellers from the west and down under
5. If these are exploited  SL would be the next Bali, as most young travellers from down under wish for now,  
6.  More tourist arrivals will create more accommodation facilities improving the livelihoods of all inhabitants in this region.
7. All these benefits would be low hanging fruits achievable in a short period if the Mattala utilisation improves.
8. Emirates A380 landing here would also be an impetus to utilise otherAir Lines flying A380’s over Mattala like Quantas
9. Connections To Southern Indian Destinations, is another rout of poor connectivity from down under and if connections to Chennai or Kerala can be arranged at Mattala, the residents down under from these origins would be another a large group that would be interested in this flight. Presently they fly to Delhi and fly back south or deviate to Singapore.

Benefits To Emirates:

1. With little disruption to it’s schedules and little additional costs a new market would open catering to tourism from down under to Sri Lanka and also as pointed out to South India.

What Needs To Be Done Now.

Initiate discussions between Sri Lanka & Emirates to explore these possibilities with earnest and urgency

I would be happy to provide more information if required.

I am also copying this to the  SL  High Commissioner in Wellington, HE Prasanna Gamage who is also very keen to support this idea.

Thanking you very much and hoping for the success of this idea

Yours Sincerely.

Dr. Chula Rajapakse MNZM

Spokesperson and Fmr President of USLA ( United Sri Lanka Association)

64 274768797

cc.

1. Hon Vijitha Herath Minister of Foreign Affairs , Foreign Employement and Tourism   herath_v@parliament.lk

• Prof Ruwan Chaminda Ranasinghe  Deputy Minister of Tourism

ruwan_r@parliament.lk

• HE Prasanna Gamage HC for SL in NZ  prasanna.gamage@mfa.gov.lk

• Mr. Harsha Weerakoon Sri Lankan News Paper NZ

harshanathweerakoon@gmail.com