Although an active website is essential for operations of an international airport, it seems that Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) has forgotten to renew their web domain.

Visitors to the website (www.mria.lk) can see a message from ‘LK Domain Registry”, registrar for Sri Lanka .lk domain names, saying that the domain name of the website has expired.

‘Please inform the site owner that they should renew this domain’ the message says.

Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport, which is also known as the Hambantota International Airport, is Sri Lanka’s second international airport after Bandaranaike International Airport, Katunayake.

It was opened by then president Mahinda Rajapaksa on March 18, 2014. It is also said to be the first greenfield airport in the country. Along with Hambantota Port, MRIA was a pet project of Mahinda Rajapaksa in his home district.

The airport was estimated to cost US$210 million. It was revealed that MRIA earned approximately Rs. 16,000 as revenue during the month of May, 2014.

The future of Mattala Airport was put in doubt after the election of Maithripala Sirisena as President.