For those who can't access Forbes, it's a really interesting article about Sri Lanka's Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (HRI). It is an enormous airport that almost nobody goes to has one daily flight and
"a 12,000 square meter terminal building, 12 check-in counters, two gates, a runway long enough to handle the largest commercial jets, and capacity for one million passengers per year"
It was funded by Chinese companies trying to invest in large infrastructure projects, and partly the fault of the dictator of Sri Lanka, who was recently displaced.
Yes. Holy crap. That's definitely much worse; it's a fully built out international airport with no passenger service at all, international or otherwise. (I wonder if that means they have the security checkpoints and whatnot staffed, or does that only happen after someone moves in?)
Worse, it's half an hour away from another international airport (ONT), which is already pretty empty. So it seems highly unlikely that any sane airline would ever start service to SBD.
I would be willing to fly to it to easily experience being in the middle of the jungle. If they can develop sustainable eco tourism that would be a boost for the local economy. Hopefully it would be a trickle that starts a stream of revenue for the region.
I was half expecting it to name my local airport, Dayton International - the security line is usually about 6 people or less when I go through. It's a breeze compared to most other airports I visit.
I think it must have one flight to Canadia or something, I'm not sure how else it would get the 'International' moniker.
heh. Reminds me of the alleged ghost cities of China. Huge development projects in back waters waiting to be populated. Since China was behind the investment I wouldn't be surprised if similar mechanisms are at play between the domestic and international variant of this phenomena.
"a 12,000 square meter terminal building, 12 check-in counters, two gates, a runway long enough to handle the largest commercial jets, and capacity for one million passengers per year"
It was funded by Chinese companies trying to invest in large infrastructure projects, and partly the fault of the dictator of Sri Lanka, who was recently displaced.