Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport guide

Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (HRI) opened on 18 March 2013 as Sri Lanka's second international airport, built at Mattala near Hambantota on the island's southern coast. Construction began in November 2009 and cost about $209 million, with $190 million financed through high-interest development loans from the Export-Import Bank of China. President Mahinda Rajapaksa inaugurated the facility, and SriLankan Airlines operated the first commercial flight, from Dubai, followed soon after by Air Arabia and Flydubai.

The single terminal covers 10,000 square metres and was built to handle up to 1 million passengers a year through 12 check-in counters and two jetway-equipped gates. Its 3,500-metre asphalt runway is long enough for an Airbus A380, but every scheduled international carrier had withdrawn by 2018, and the airport handled just 25,767 passengers in 2021.

Forbes labelled it "the world's emptiest international airport," and government planners had originally recommended against siting a second international gateway so close to Colombo. Traffic today is limited to seasonal charter flights bringing tourists from Belarus, Bulgaria, Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan toward Yala National Park, while Sri Lanka has explored a public-private partnership to revive the loss-making airport.