Sri Lanka Airports

President instructs to expedite work of new BIA terminal

http://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking_n...nal/108-181367

Jan 16,During an emergency inspection tour of the Katunayake Bandaranaike International Airport this afternoon, the President also instructed the authorities to ensure that the security measures

The President pointed out that by setting up two separate terminals, one for arrivals and one for departures, efficient service can be provided to passengers. He also advised the authorities to expedite the construction of the new passenger terminal.
President Rajapaksa advised the Chairman of the Airport Maj. Gen. G A Chandrasiri to set up a separate terminal for taxis to improve the service with purpose of eliminating passenger inconvenience.

I guess nothing's getting built anytime soon then!

Govt. gets tough with Japan on new BIA terminal

The Government has given the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) time till Wednesday (15) to agree to renegotiate the cost of construction of the second terminal of the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA).

Minister instructs to resume operations at Mattala Airport soon

FR24 has updated Jaffna Air port (JAF/VCCJ) in their MAP, i have uploaded JAF airport to Jetphotos but still not being updated the photo..

Sri Lanka set to launch development plan to upgrade airports
Source: Xinhua| 2019-12-17 19:50:51|
COLOMBO, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka will launch a new program early next year to develop and upgrade the island's main airports in order to boost local and international tourism, Minister of Industrial Exports, Investment Promotion, Tourism and Aviation Prasanna Ranatunga said here Tuesday.

Ranatunga told Xinhua that with Sri Lanka aiming to attract at least 10 million tourists per year by 2025, the government would look to expand and develop the existing airports, namely the Bandaranaike International Airport, on the outskirts of the capital, the Jaffna International Airport in the north, the Mattala international airport, in the south and the Batticaloa Airport in the east.

"Further development of these airports will not only help tourism growth, but it will also strengthen internal air transportation. This will be vital for business as well," Ranatunga said.

The minister further said that with a free trade zone proposed to be set up close to the Mattala international airport, in the south, the government would invite more international airlines to land there in order to attract investors.

Last week, Ranatunga said Sri Lanka was aiming to attract at least 2.5 million tourists by next year and 10 million tourists by 2025, and it will look to boost arrivals from India and China.

BIA expansion to go ahead with Japanese assistance

The Minister said that this government has given priority for this project and expect to complete it on January next year.

India provides a Rs 300 million grant for the development of the ...passenger terminal of Jaffna International Airport

Jaffna International Airport

BIA expansion will be expedited – Prasanna

Minister Prasanna Ranatunga in the inspection tour at the BIA yesterday.
Industrial Export and Investment Promotion, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Prasanna Ranatunga yesterday said that construction work on the BIA expansion project will be expedited by calling for tenders again. It was stalled midway by contractors associated with the former regime.

The Minister made an observation tour of the BIA yesterday.

He further said the airport capacity is only six million passengers, but 12 million use it annually. Therefore, this has created a huge congestion in the airport.


Former President and present PM Mahinda Rajapaksa had formulated several plans to construct terminal two and three in 2015. By this time, at least terminal two should have been completed, but so far, there is no progress, “he said.

The contractors associated with the powerful figures of the former regime are still dragging the construction projects. Even the officials of the Authority have to abide by their programmes. We will remove these contractors and call for new tenders to complete at least interior projects in the next six months,” the Minister said.

Source: Daily news

Well the moment, if we let LCC to start the business here.. UL will find its own destiny... eventhough that will benefit both tourism and LS aviation though....
ideally UL must its own LC (not like Mihin Lanka for sure) and then compete with regional LCC like SpieceJet, IndiGo, AirAsia etc....or have a joint venture with AirAsia on 50:50 basis and pump those revenue to UL at least for cost cover..
(emirates strategy was this only.. make UL a regional carrier while EK brings people here from main destinations (DXB, SIN etc..).. even it is not good for UL, SL tax money would have spent some other useful way then... as EK will ensure SL business will be a cash cow and not other way around...

i'm also doubtful what opportunities do we have in terms of being a cargo hub specially Mattala.. unless you get those MC's, FedEx, DHL to have their regional offices in that area...

With all the minimum required facilities in place, why not develop HRI as an LCC hub?

Lower Embarkation Taxes etc and it would most certainly attract LCC‘s back to Lanka

I’m pretty sure FlyDubai and AirArabia would resume operations, IndiGo and SpiceJet would come into the picture as well, not forgetting AirAsia and the Lion Air Group

The problem is that nobody seems to think out of the box to make this Airport work

A Cargo hub would be questionable since they would then need to have an efficient logistics system in place to transport consignments to Colombo

Wishful thinking
Let’s hope for the best

Sri Lanka Government to develop Mattala Airport as a Cargo Hub and a training facility

The Sri Lanka government will develop the Mattala Airport as a cargo hub and a training facility for aeronautical engineering in partnership with the private sector, a minister said today.

Industrial Export, Investment Promotion and Civil Aviation Minister Prasanna Ranatunga told Daily Mirror today that the Mattala Airport would be linked with the Hambantota port for cargo handling. Besides, he said it would be developed as a training facility for aeronautical engineering.

He said private sector partnership would be used for the management of the airport.

“The government alone cannot develop it. We need a private sector partnership to manage it. We have not decided whether it will be a foreign partnership or local,” he said.

The previous government planned to develop the airport with India. (Kelum Bandara)

Source: Daily Mirror

FitsAir, Alliance and SpiceJet are front-runners. Hopefully IndiGo will get into the picture too and we’d get to see some Q400’s and ATR’s in action

UL has missed the bus as usual as they do not have suitable aircraft to serve JAF