Sri Lanka Airports

Sri Lanka signs new agreement with Japanese company for Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) Terminal-2 Project

Fri, Mar 13, 2020, 11:58 am SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

Mar 13, Colombo: Sri Lanka?s Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Limited Thursday signed a new agreement with Japan?s Taisei Corporation for the second Passenger Terminal at the country?s main International Gateway - the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA).

The much awaited and long overdue project to build a multilevel terminal building at the Bandaranaike International Airport will finally commence in three months and will be completed in three years said Airport and Aviation Services Ltd, (AASL) Chairman G.A. Chandrasiri.



The signing of the contract took place on 12th March 2020 in Colombo between AASL Chairman G.A. Chandrasiri and Managing Executive Officer, Taisei Corporation Keiji Hirano in the presence of Ambassador of Japan to Sri Lanka Akira Sugiyama.

Continuing the growth momentum of the country, the infrastructural capacities at BIA will be expanded contributing to the tourism and aviation industries.

Speaking at the event the AASL Chairman highlighted the strategic importance of developing the infrastructural facilities at strategically important places such as airports.

Further, the Chairman mentioned that the development programs are being implemented in line with the stipulated objectives of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in his Vision for the country. Therefore, identifying the responsibilities timely by Prime Minister and the Minister of Tourism and Aviation, this development initiative materialized to ensure that the country?s development is people-centric.

At present, BIA is congested and it creates discomfort for the passengers, airport users, and all stakeholders. The new state of the art passenger terminal will have the capacity to handle 9 million passenger movements while total handling capacity at BIA to increase up to 15 million per annum.

The Project, along with other Re-modelling and Re-structuring initiatives at the present Terminal-BIA together with other four international airports (Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport, Colombo International Airport, Ratmalana, Jaffna International Airport, and Batticaloa Airports) will comfortably provide the infrastructure to cater for 20 million passengers in 2025, which is the target of the government of Sri Lanka, the AASL said.

Prasanna Ranatunga, Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation, Mrs. S. M Mohamed, the Secretary to the Ministry of Tourism and Aviation, AASL, members of the Board of Directors of Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Ltd, CEO &other Senior Officers of Taisei Group of Companies and the senior management of AASL were also present at this occasion.

Do you have latest update on new apron? Any current pictures ?

Railway access to Terminal 2 as well
BIA gates to triple from 14 to 42

Wednesday, March 11, 2020 - 01:00 Print Edition FinanceRAVI LADDUWAHETTY

The Bandaranaike International Airport will have 42 gates from the current 14 following the three year expansion plan which will shortly begin and billed to finish in 2023.

This would be a massive Terminal Building which would house also a Railway Facility from the Colombo Fort for both departures and arrivals as well. The departures will be on the upper floor and the train would drop the departing passengers at the upper floor of the building while the arrivals would be on the lower floor of the building and they would be picked up from the lower floor of terminal building, he said. The Government will sign the Agreement for the construction of the Second Phase of the BIA with the contractor- Taisei Corporation tomorrow (12), Minister of Industrial Exports, Investment Promotion, Tourism and Aviation Prasanna Ranatunga said.

The Project, which will be costing around Rs. 37 Billion, will be funded by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will be billed to be completed in three years by 2023.

Meanwhile, Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Ltd Chairman G.A. Chandrasiri saidthat the current terminal building could accommodate only 6.5 Million passengers with the present capacity but was handling 10.9 Million passengers as of now. With the completion of the second Terminal building, there will be a total handing capacity of 20 Million passengers per annum.

A bigger apron will see that there will be parking space for 36 aircraft as well, he said.

He also said that there would be a state- of- the- art facilities which would be the latest baggage handling facilities, new immigration facilities, more space for passengers and new Immigration/ Emigration facilities.


Aviation Minister Prasanna Ranatunga last Friday warned Osama Construction Ltd of Japan that it would be blacklisted if it did not complete the Rs. 6 billion Apron contract at the BIA by May 31. The Minister had cautioned the Japanese contractor claiming that this was after the Japanese contractor had been given four earlier extensions.

If the contractor had failed, there would be complaints made by the GOSL to the Government of Japan, the financier of the project and the contractor would be blacklisted, top sources said.

The Japanese company has been asked to pay us demurrage to us as we cannot lose public funds due to the negligence of the contractor, G.A. Chandrasiri said. He said that a Special Task Force had been appointed to monitor the project headed by a Specialist Engineer and that the project was going on smoothly.

?Following the warning of the Minister, the contractor is now working round the clock with around 300 workers to complete the project by May 31, 2020?, he said.

Sri Lanka's Minister of Industrial Export, Investment Promotion and Civil Aviation Prasanna Ranatunga reported the Colombo Bandaranaike International Airport expansion project includes provisions for developing 28 additional boarding gates, increasing the total number of gates to 42 (Daily News, 11-Mar-2020).

must be apron.. terminal will take ages.. untill next election come sin 2025...

Is this news about new terminal or new apron?

all these are just showoffs man.. the tender was granted back to the japanese frim not because it was renegotiated.. but there was no alternatives.. these guys just want to showoff some things are happening but in reality nothing...
lets see for the nest few months (rather 3 months) what gonna happen..
All these hype show untill 25/04/.....
the biggest challenge is not bulding air ports... but how to settle loan dues.....
count my words... no project gonna kick off for next few years... and to cover up their failures of not getting done as promised they will their own versions of excuses...

Minister instructs to complete construction work of Katunayake Airport in three months

Sun, Mar 8, 2020, 01:26 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

Mar 08, Colombo: Minister of Industrial Export, Investment Promotion, Tourism and Civil Aviation Prasanna Ranatunga has instructed the contracting company to complete the construction of the new apron at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in Katunayake within three months.

If failed to do so, Government of Japan, which funds the project would be informed and the contractor will be blacklisted, the Minister has said.


At a special meeting held at the Ministry of Industrial Export, Tourism and Aviation to review the progress of the development projects at the Katunayake Airport Minister Ranatunga stressed that the construction of the new apron should be completed by May 31st.

One of the projects under the Katunayake Airport Development Project is the construction of its new apron. The amount allocated for this purpose is Rs. 6 billion. The contract was awarded to the relevant Japanese company and the construction work of "Remote Apron and Taxiways" commenced in April 2017. The work was expected to be completed by October 2019, but the time has been extended on four occasions.

Even though the deadline extended again on February 28, only 75% of the work has been completed. The Minister pointed out that this has been a major obstacle for the development of the airport and it would be a serious loss.

Minister Ranatunga inquired from the contractors as to why this delay. The construction company said construction was delayed due to a shortage of river sand. The airport engineering division objected to the request of the company for approval to complete the rest of the work using sea sand.

The Minister ordered that the construction should be completed by May 31st. A special committee has been appointed to oversee the construction.

?This is your last chance. If this is not completed by May 31, a complaint will be lodged with the Japanese government and will blacklist the company. At the same time, we will fully recover the loss from the company Finish the work without giving reasons,? the Minister warned.

Sri Lanka?s cabinet of ministers had cleared the award of a contract valued at over 500 million US dollar expand Sri Lanka?s main airport in Katunayake to Japan?s Taisei Corporation, to boost capacity, the state information office said.

The contract is worth 41.55 billion Japanese yen and 35.135 billion rupees (about 565 million US dollars) and involves the Stage II, package A of the contract.

Under the project a new multi-level terminal building, two new piers and a link course will be built.

Sri Lanka?s main international airport in Katunayake is already operating over capacity.

The expansion will add the capacity to handle 9 million more passengers a year.

The airport is handling over 6 million passengers now though it was built to handle around 5 million persons a year. (Colombo/Feb20/2020)

Source: Economy Next

Sri Lanka to construct new airport terminal

Colombo: The Sri Lankan government will soon commence the construction of a new terminal at the Bandaranaike International Airport here in order to accommodate a large number of arrivals, it was reported on Thursday.However, with the completion of the new "Terminal 2" in three years, the airport was planning to accommodate 20 million passengers per year.

Free Shuttle Service at BIA for Passenger Convenience

A free shuttle service has been introduced from today (30th, January) onwards at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) to facilitate the passengers and the public. This shuttle bus service has been launched in collaboration with the Department of Railways with an added service of a passenger waiting lounge too. Free shuttle bus service will be available in every 10 minutes from the BIA Railway station to the BIA departure passenger terminal building.

These measures are implemented under the direction of Hon. Prasanna Ranatunga, Minister of Tourism & Aviation and with the guidance of Major General G. A. Chandrasiri, Chairman of Airport Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Limited (AASL), to enhance the passenger convenience and uplift the service delivery at BIA.

Source: Sri Lanka News

Bandaranayake International Airport expansion project starts

Bandaranayake International Airport expansion project starts. Minister of Industrial Export, Investment Promotion, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Prasanna Ranatunga said that the aim of this project is to minimize passenger traffic at the airport.
The Katunayake International Airport will spend Rs. 600 million for this project.
The Road Development Authority is implementing the project directly.
Minister Ranatunga has said that a land belonging to the Board of Investment had been given free of charge for the purpose.
The new expressway will be used to ease congestion on the Katunayake Expressway on the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway.

travel time from MRIA to Colombo is 2 hrs n 30 mins... where this is going to fit in making MRIA commercially viable?.. are you kidding me??
is this something to suggest everybody will land in MRIA instead of BIA and then use southern express way to get back to Colombo???

this is a Joke.. these morons (present gov. somehow wants get flights landed in MRIA.. they will not care will that be on what expenses....) we know befre 2015 there couple UL flights just landed in MRIA with zero passenger embark/disembark to show MRIA is a happening place... well it is happening place for wildlife and not for aviation...

Development Initiatives at MRIA and Colombo Airport Ratmalana

The management of AASL is in negotiations with prospective airlines to commence regional operations to the Maldivian Islands and the South-Indian sectors from the Colombo Airport Ratmalana. Further, the management is having discussions with airlines to re-commence the international flight operations to MRIA. The new southern expressway network will connect the airport to surrounded areas while reducing the travel time from MRIA to Colombo to 2 hours and 30 minutes. While the management of AASL is looking to make MRIA a truly wonderful travel destination, AASL is planning to offer attractive benefits to new airlines those who are planning to commence operations.