In 2023, London Heathrow noticed 79.2 million move by means of on their method out and in of the UK.
At peak occasions, the crowds can usually be an excessive amount of, with lengthy queues at passport management placing a damper on an in any other case pleasant vacation.
Such issues don’t happen at Mattala Rajapaksa Worldwide Airport in Sri Lanka nevertheless, the place solely seven individuals move by means of its terminal on common every day.
Positioned in Hambantota, about four-and-a-half-hours from the capital metropolis Colombo, the airport surrounded by jungle and small villages boasts little greater than a cab rental workplace and a resort, with no Pret a Manger to be seen.
Opened in 2013, the airport was the brainchild of then-president Mahinda Rajapaksa who grew up within the space.
Rajapaksa served in that submit for practically a decade, and through his tenure, commanded the airport’s development at a price of $209million (£159m), a lot of it funded by China, as a part of its Belt and Street Initiative.
The airport was meant to be the primary piece of an even bigger puzzle, with a wealth of infrastructure deliberate to be constructed round it, opening up distant Sri Lanka to scores of Western and Asian vacationers.
The plans by no means received off the bottom and following some mild visitors in its opening months, only a few flights did both.
By 2015, because the airport was haemorrhaging cash, Rajapaksa left his submit after being defeated within the January presidential elections.
With low flight income, the airport’s unused air cargo terminals have been leased to retailer the rice bumper harvest from the area in addition to to supply long-term parking to unused aeroplanes.
In line with a Heart for Aviation report from 2015, “…the truth is Mattala Rajapaksa Worldwide just isn’t wanted and is a distraction in Sri Lankan’s efforts to show itself round.”
However, the airport remains to be a captivating sight and does draw vacationers who journey to see the spectacular 11,483-foot runway, able to receiving the world’s largest airframes in probably the most unlikely of settings.
Initially constructed to have the ability to serve a million passengers, its 12 check-in desks stay abandoned. Its future is unclear with rumours {that a} burgeoning India is perhaps prepared to tackle the location, though any concrete plans appear years away.