Pipe Dream
- Aviation Hub
H.M.C.Nimalsiri
With airline hubs already established in the region, ie in the Middle East and Singapore respectively, it will be difficult for Colombo to also compete to be another regional hub, an official said.
H.M.C. Nimalsiri, Director General Civil Aviation, speaking at a seminar in Colombo on Thursday said that if Sri Lanka is aspiring to be a regional hub it may have to create demand by being a free port and by moving towards industrialization.
Sri Lanka under the Government’s “Mahinda Chinthana” policy document aspires to develop five hubs, one of which is aviation.
“The island may be strategically located for marine transport, but not for the aviation industry,” he said. Already air routes in the East and the West go well over Sri Lanka, as a result the island is not located in the air routes of Asia, Far East and the West, said Nimalsiri.
He further said that the development of Bangalore and Hyderabad airports by private operators posed a threat to Colombo in that the private sector was market savvy.
Creating a hub later will be difficult, said Nimalsiri. Malaysia tried to outbeat Singapore by building an airport that could take twice Changi’s number, but ultimately ended up getting only half the load that Changi gets, he said.
A new airline that will touch down in Colombo this year will be Aeroflot. Fifty per cent of passengers to Colombo fly in the national carrier SriLankan.
Nimalsiri said that non aviation related charges such as income accrued from shopping and restaurant services in developed airports such as Dubai and Changi constitute 70% of their revenue.
During question time a member of the audience said that SriLankan’s monopoly in ground handling threatened Colombo’s aspiration to become a hub. He alleged that while SriLankan charged a fee of US$ 3,242 per turnaround aircraft, in certain other parts of the region, the charges were a fifth of that, at US$ 650, and at the higher end US$ 1,200; still almost a third of what SriLankan charged.
Johanne Jayaratne, Executive Director Airport and Aviation Services Sri Lanka Ltd., the other speaker at the event said that he has no authority to speak about allowing the entry of a second player to the ground handling business.
He however acknowledged the fact that such services should be competitive.
Jayaratne in his speech said that there are plans to double the airport’s capacity from the current annual capacity of six million (which it has almost reached) to 12 million by building a new terminal and pier and also by constructing a second runway, with negotiations being conducted with the BoI to get the adjacent land belonging to them for that purpose.
However cargo capacity is yet to peak, with Colombo having the capacity to handle 300,000 metric tons, but currently handling just over half that amount.
A domestic terminal will also be on stream by the year end.
Plans are also underway to ratify the Montreal Convention which will supersede the Warsaw Convention that would up airline passenger liability from the current US$ 15,680 to US$ 100,000; and if death is due to the negligence of the airline, then that liability would be unlimited. Air Force will also invest in a 52 seater turbo aircraft catering to the South Indian aviation market.
The event was organized by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport Sri Lanka.
H.M.C. Nimalsiri, Director General Civil Aviation, speaking at a seminar in Colombo on Thursday said that if Sri Lanka is aspiring to be a regional hub it may have to create demand by being a free port and by moving towards industrialization.
Sri Lanka under the Government’s “Mahinda Chinthana” policy document aspires to develop five hubs, one of which is aviation.
“The island may be strategically located for marine transport, but not for the aviation industry,” he said. Already air routes in the East and the West go well over Sri Lanka, as a result the island is not located in the air routes of Asia, Far East and the West, said Nimalsiri.
He further said that the development of Bangalore and Hyderabad airports by private operators posed a threat to Colombo in that the private sector was market savvy.
Creating a hub later will be difficult, said Nimalsiri. Malaysia tried to outbeat Singapore by building an airport that could take twice Changi’s number, but ultimately ended up getting only half the load that Changi gets, he said.
A new airline that will touch down in Colombo this year will be Aeroflot. Fifty per cent of passengers to Colombo fly in the national carrier SriLankan.
Nimalsiri said that non aviation related charges such as income accrued from shopping and restaurant services in developed airports such as Dubai and Changi constitute 70% of their revenue.
During question time a member of the audience said that SriLankan’s monopoly in ground handling threatened Colombo’s aspiration to become a hub. He alleged that while SriLankan charged a fee of US$ 3,242 per turnaround aircraft, in certain other parts of the region, the charges were a fifth of that, at US$ 650, and at the higher end US$ 1,200; still almost a third of what SriLankan charged.
Johanne Jayaratne, Executive Director Airport and Aviation Services Sri Lanka Ltd., the other speaker at the event said that he has no authority to speak about allowing the entry of a second player to the ground handling business.
He however acknowledged the fact that such services should be competitive.
Jayaratne in his speech said that there are plans to double the airport’s capacity from the current annual capacity of six million (which it has almost reached) to 12 million by building a new terminal and pier and also by constructing a second runway, with negotiations being conducted with the BoI to get the adjacent land belonging to them for that purpose.
However cargo capacity is yet to peak, with Colombo having the capacity to handle 300,000 metric tons, but currently handling just over half that amount.
A domestic terminal will also be on stream by the year end.
Plans are also underway to ratify the Montreal Convention which will supersede the Warsaw Convention that would up airline passenger liability from the current US$ 15,680 to US$ 100,000; and if death is due to the negligence of the airline, then that liability would be unlimited. Air Force will also invest in a 52 seater turbo aircraft catering to the South Indian aviation market.
The event was organized by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport Sri Lanka.
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