Nahil to launch budget airline

Plans to invest US$ 20 million:

Ravi Ladduwahetty

Business magnate Nahil Wijesuriya and related parties will invest US$ 20 million for a budget airline, which will initially fly to sub continental routes.

The initial destinations will be Chennai, Trivandrum and Bangalore in South India and later Mumbai, Wijesuriya told Daily News Business by telephone from Singapore.

"There is tremendous scope for budget carriers and all the Government has to do is to have an open skies policy and Sri Lanka will have unlimited scope like Jet and Air Sahara making headway here due to the unparalleled strategic advantage of its geographical proximities, he said.

"This will be the testing water for us and if it is proved successful, we will expand the routes further, he said.

He said that finding investors and leasing aircraft was done internationally with consummate ease. He said that incorporating a company could be done in as less as three minutes, the way it happens overseas!!

He said that the modern trend was for Asian companies to operate budget airlines through leases, as Asian airlines were the most trendy due to restrictions in making capital investments.

He also implored the Government to favour the locals and not the foreigners in the spirit of the country favouring its people for the people to favour the country.

This is what is happening in the Indian Aviation industry unlike in Sri Lanka where we were pampering foreigners all the time, he said in disdain.

Wijesuriya, whose Air Lanka Ltd cargo flight, which was a single Russian aircraft, had round trips on the route Colombo- Male- Sharjah- Chennai Colombo, operated over 70 flights as a test run prior to wanting to operate passenger flights, which were to be from Colombo to Jaffna and South India.

But the then Government Agreement with Emirates was the drawback in the way of implementing the project.

The airline was disbanded and the aircraft returned. "We did not want to operate cargo flights for the rest of our lives," he said.

Wijesuriya's Air Lanka Ltd also had a legal snag as its name was in conflict with the national carrier and later changed its name to Inter City Airways Ltd.

Wijesuriya and parties, hot on the heels of the acquisition of the controlling stake of Hotel Services (Ceylon) Ltd, has also written to the remaining shareholders making a mandatory offer for the 10% remaining shares at Rs. 138 per share.

The original owner P. Sharma is believed to have said that he wants to retain his 7% and it will also be interesting to see how and when the remaining 1600 shareholders react to selling the remaining 3% at Rs. 138 when the market price is Rs. 142.