Board of Airline Representatives (BAR), Sri Lanka Association of Airline Representatives (SLAAR) and Country Managers of airlines, flying to Sri Lanka hailed the move by the government to reduce ground handling, aviation fuel and embarkation levy for six months.
Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), Johanne Jayaratne said that this move was long awaited by the aviation sector and it will offer at least a 20 to 25% reduction of charges to airlines flying to Sri Lanka. He said that arrivals are picking up and the one million arrival mark was seen end of May and predicted to touch the 2.3 million mark by end 2019. Emirates, Manger Sri Lanka and Maldives Chandana De Silva said that they cancelled nearly 41 flights after the Easter bombings and they are now operating again. “All airlines did not charge any penalty fees for date changes or cancelations from passengers during the time,” he said.
He however, said that Russian direct flights are yet to re commence. De Silva said an aviation veteran said that they don’t see any more airline passenger cancelations for Sri Lanka and this is a sign of tourism recovery.
President, BAR, Dimuthu Tennkoon said that this move to offer concessions for airlines flying to Colombo will definitely woo more airlines to fly to Colombo and existing airlines operating to Colombo to add frequencies. Chairman, SLAAR, Jerald Victoria, said that this move would also help new airlines especially from the region to re look at operating flights to Colombo. “British airways may also re look at flying to Colombo from Heathrow end of the year.”
China Eastern Airlines, G.S.A Dart Aviation Director and General Manger Eustace Silva said that they will resume operations from Colombo to Shanghai from October and will add frequency to Kunming soon. “By September we will go back to our original schedule,” he added.
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