Air Arabia stops flights to Mattala-Sri Lanka

Air Arabia, the only international carrier that flew to Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA), is believed to have either cancelled or temporarily suspended its flights to Mattala international airport in southern Sri Lanka.
The website of the Sharjah based airline no longer provides reservation facilities to or from MRIA and the airline’s destination map only contains Colombo as its sole Sri Lankan destination.

Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Dr. Ravindra Ruberu, cited low levels of passenger traffic as the primary reason behind disruptions to the flight schedule.

“Reports that Air Arabia has completely stopped flights are false. We have signed agreements with them that state that they will fly to Mattala however the frequency of flights is for them to decide based on the levels of passenger traffic”

When questioned about frequency of flights and passenger arrivals into Mattala, several officials from government owned service provider, Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Limited declined to comment.
Source: Dailymirror Posted by Unknown 5/09/2013