Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

Commercial airlines plying to Jaffna have suspended flights in recent weeks after the load factors fell dramatically since the A9 highway to the north is now open, airline industry sources said. While Deccan Aviation suspended flights from around January, Expo Air has stopped flying since March 12 as passengers had dropped to a trickle on its 50-plus seater planes.

The opening of the A9 highway has seen heavy traffic and special AC buses plying to and from Jaffna at prices ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 (one-way) compared to an air-ticket which costs about Rs 10,000 (one-way).

Sources at Expo said they were looking for a smaller 19-seater aircraft to resume flights, maybe on a reduced schedule as against the daily flights. Currently Helitours, the commercial arm of the Sri Lanka Airforce, is operating three flights a week to Jaffna and back. Industry sources said the frequency could increase since other two airlines have suspended operations.

On the other hand, industry sources say that the euphoria and excitement of travelling to Jaffna for southerners keen to visit the north, some for the first time, would wear off in time and regular northern travellers may return to travel by air.

The President's programme calls for Sri Lanka becoming a regional aviation hub. We are already an incipient aviation hub for the southern Indian continental region, including the Maldives. How did we get here? What more will it take?

First, the government reformed airport operations with the creation of Airport Aviation Services Limited (AASL) as a government owned company in 1983. That structure was a distinct improvement from what existed before, and the airport was for several years superior to its Indian peers (though not to Singapore, Bangkok, etc.). Airports compete with other airports in the region. To stand still is to fall back.

The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, now ranked one of world's best, underlines the need for reforms in the management of the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA). While the physical infrastructure has been upgraded in the past few years, the organisation is now showing the ill effects of abuse of power for political and venal purposes and the creeping recolonisation by government mindsets.

Concrete and jetways do not an aviation hub make. An aviation hub is one where transit occurs. Many passengers come to a hub airport not because they want to visit the country where the airport is located, but because they wish to catch another plane. The airport makes money from the services it provides these transit passengers and to the airlines that carry them.

The people from the country where the airport is located benefit because the transit traffic justifies more direct flights to a range of destinations.

The BIA is an incipient hub because even today SriLankan Airlines brings in a lot of passengers who are travelling to/from India. Some of these people do not leave the airport at all, connecting to flights that leave immediately after they arrive. Others do leave the airport, staying in hotels for a few hours or longer, before coming back to catch a flight. This (as well as the attraction of Indian tourists to Sri Lanka) was made possible by the initiative taken by the then Minister for Economic Reforms, Milinda Moragoda, back in 2002 to allow visa-on-arrival to Indian visitors.

Unilateral liberalisation of the visa regime yielded immediate benefits not only in terms of tourism (India rising to become the largest market, with one of the highest growth rates), but also made Colombo an incipient regional aviation hub.

The India-Sri Lanka Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) process which was initiated through a 2003 joint study report with major contributions from the Ministry for Economic Reform, Science and Technology was intended to lock in these (and other) benefits.

The report yielded immediate benefits. The Sri Lanka-India routes were liberalised in 2004 with permission being granted to Indian private airlines to fly into Colombo. Constraints were lifted on flights into India by airlines from Sri Lanka.

The combined results of the visa and market liberalisation can be seen in the rapid increase of transit passengers in Colombo, pulling ahead of India's principal gateway airport, Mumbai.

Rapid growth of transit passengers plateaued by 2008, along with overall passenger traffic, indicating that the momentum of 2002-04 is running out.

For inexplicable reasons, the government balked at signing the CEPA. It has so far failed to implement a good regulatory regime for BIA, still governed by archaic monopoly arrangements for ground handling services.

The unpardonable and avoidable mess of Mihin Lanka has cast a pall on the entire industry.

The management turmoil caused by trying to renationalise SriLankan and the resultant financial crisis have made it even less likely that it could be weaned from its reliance on ground-handling profits to reduce losses from flying operations.
What will it take to advance?

Hubs cannot be decreed into existence. They emerge because the economics are right. They disappear when the economics are wrong. In the 1950s and 1960s, Singaporeans came to Colombo to connect to flights to Europe. Since the 1970s, we have been going to Singapore to connect to flights.

The rise of Singapore was based on massive investment, good regulation and public-private partnerships. If Colombo is to rise again, we will need a laser-like focus on the increasing investment through public-private partnerships and in creating a modern regulatory regime for airport and aviation services that will facilitate investment and efficiency.

Some of the investments are being done others need to be done. Currently, aircraft have to carry extra fuel when coming to Colombo because the nearest alternative airports (Male and Chennai) are more than one hour away.

The completion of the Mattala Airport will remedy this problem. But there is still the need for a second runway, arguably even more important than the alternative airport.

BIA does not have enough gates to justify being called a hub. Construction must begin now of another terminal at BIA. All this requires investment. It is best that this comes from willing private investors, rather than from the government's meager budget. The solution is public-private partnerships, on the lines of what is being done in the major international airports of India.

Hyderabad becoming the world's fifth best airport in 2010 is a wake-up call. Even if the early results are going to be disappointing it is imperative that Colombo subject itself to assessment by credible third parties, like the major Indian airports.

Colombo's future as a viable regional hub airport depends on continuing progress on reforming the airport and introducing competition. Infrastructure reforms cannot change as governments change.

The actions that made Colombo an incipient aviation hub were taken by previous UNP governments and the 1994-99 PA government (the privatisation of SriLankan Airlines in 1998).

It is heartening that the current President has made the aviation hub a centerpiece of his second term. The Mahinda Chinthana Idiri Dekma lays out the vision of what is to be achieved, but is thin on how it is to be achieved.

The 'how' is spelled out in the Sri Lanka National Congress' Agenda for Influencing the Government, the manifesto of Milinda Moragoda's 2010 campaign.

The relevant actions include:

See India as an opportunity, not a threat and engage to create Sri Lankan jobs

Enter into a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with India

Facilitate public and private sectors to work together in a win-win partnership

Rationalise archaic rules and regulations and bureaucratic red tape that obstruct and hinder progress and economic development.

One hopes that this will be the foundation of a bipartisan consensus on the next stage of making Colombo an aviation hub, and that the consensus will be translated into the right actions and consistency of purpose.

SriLankan s Head of Flight Operations, Captain Druvi Perera, said: These flights by Capt. Siriratne and Junior First Officer Chandradasa are a milestone at SriLankan Airlines. SriLankan does not discriminate between men and women in its recruitment for any post, including pilots, and it was simply a matter of time before our lady pilots made history with an all-female flight.

Of course, the all-female crew flights are no different to those operated by male pilots. At SriLankan, where safety is of paramount importance, what matters is not a pilot s gender, but his or her experience, training, and expertise, added Capt. Perera.

Capt. Anusha Siriratne, 34, is at present the first and only lady Captain at SriLankan, and has been flying since 1998. She has flown aircraft such as the Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, Airbus A-320, A-330, and A-340. But she is adamant that there is nothing special about an all-female flight crew.

Women took to the air only a few years after the Wright Brothers invented the air plane, and some have been pioneers in aviation, although there have been fewer women flyers than male ones. Many airlines around the world have women pilots, and there is absolutely no difference between the flying of male and female pilots, said Capt. Siriratne.

She has been making history since becoming a Junior First Officer a dozen years ago, becoming the country s pioneering First Officer in 1999, and then being promoted to Captain in 2008. She and her husband, Capt. Hemantha Siriratne, are also the first husband-wife duo to be Captains at SriLankan. A past student of Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya and of Ladies College, she is also a perfect example of a working mother, with a six-year-old daughter.

Junior First Officer Madini Chandradasa said: Flying for our National Carrier has certainly been a rewarding experience. The senior pilots at SriLankan possess a wealth of experience which youngsters can learn from. But I must say that there was no difference in flying with a male Captain, and flying with Capt. Siriratne, who is greatly respected in the airline and has served as a role model for other women pilots.

Madini, 22, is a past student of Visakha Vidyalaya who joined SriLankan two years ago.

All four lady pilots trained in SriLankan s Cadet Pilot Training Programme, which has launched the careers of hundreds of pilots over the last three decades who have gone on to distinguish themselves both at the National Carrier and in other airlines throughout Asia and the Middle East. Entry into its Cadet Pilot Training Programme is especially competitive, and most cadets today possess university degrees, as well as experience in flying light aircraft and small commercial aircraft.

China has flown what it claims to be its first indigenous large helicopter.

The AC-313, built by the helicopter division of the China Aviation Industry Corporation, Avicopter, made its maiden flight from Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province. Avicopter claims intellectual property rights of the aircraft despite its obvious design origins in the Aerospatiale Super Frelon.

Avicopter says the AC-313, which can carry 27 passengers and has a maximum range of 900 kilometres, will fill a gap in China's helicopter product line-up. It can be used for transport, cargo, search and rescue, fire-fighting, offshore exploration and medical evacuation missions.

Rotorhub.com reported this week that China was turning its attentions to the development of heavy-lift helicopters, citing the example of Mi-26s that received worldwide attention for their performance and use in the aftermath of the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008.

Hang Zhang Biao, director of Industrial Science and Technology Committee, called for increased state investment in heavy-lift helicopters as soon as possible to start the development projects, and urged the state to support heavy-lift helicopter development, like it is doing with the development of heavy-lift fixed wing aircraft.

China has also been in discussions with Russian Helicopters about developing a 20t heavy-lift helicopter.

The SLAF is in the process of preparing the ground for setting up of two permanent bases at Iranamadu and Mullaitivu adjacent to LTTE runways. About 300 troops are deployed at each site in temporary facilities.

An authoritative official told The Island that contrary to reports LTTE runways could not be transformed for civilian use overnight. He said that it would be a gradual and costly process. According to him, only two runways at Iranamadu and Mullaitivu could be used, though terrorists had set up seven runways, east and west of the A9 road to launch light aircraft. Responding to a query by The Island, the official said that even the airfields at Iranamadu and Mullitivu were in poor condition and could not have accommodated a large fixed wing aircraft. They could have taken a Y 12, a Chinese-built light aircraft capable of carrying 16 persons, he said.

Sri Lanka recently turned down a US call to deploy Air Mobile troops instead of Special Forces or Commandos alongside US personnel for a joint training exercise in the East. The Sri Lanka Army has asserted that there was no point in involving Air Mobile troops in an exercise designed for elite forces.

The US has called for Air Mobile troops, consequent to a decision not to participate in joint training exercises with elite Special Forces and Commandos, who had played a pivotal role in Sri Lanka s triumph over the LTTE. Among the extremely difficult tasks undertaken by the Special Forces and Commandos was hit and run attacks behind enemy lines, which caused chaos among LTTE leaders.

The Army finished off the LTTE, including its top leadership in a series of battles on the Vanni east front last May after President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa thwarted a last minute bid by a section of the international community to throw a lifeline to the sinking Tigers.

Although the Army had not participated in Balance Style exercise, US personnel, including Special Forces and the Sri Lankan Navy s elite Special Boat Squadron (SBS) and the Sri Lanka Air Force s Regimental Special Forces took part in the three-week exercise. This was the second such exercise involving the US personnel, since the collapse of the LTTE.

Defence sources regretted that the US had shunned joint exercises with the Sri Lankan Army over unsubstantiated war crimes charges during the final phase of the ground assault on the LTTE. Sources said that they had conveniently forgotten the Army led the rescue operation to save over 300,000 Tamil speaking civilians and over 11,000 LTTE cadres.

Sources said that the SBS, too, played an important role, both at sea and on the ground to help defeat the Sea Tigers. The SBS, set up in 1993, comprises about 600 officers and men, including 56 personnel, who joined the elite fighting unit recently.

The Investiture ceremony of the 18th Intake of the SBS comprising 56 personnel was held at the Naval and Maritime Academy in Trincomalee on March 25. They were among 200 personnel, who joined this particular course last year.

Authorities expect the first aircraft to land in the Mattala international airport in the year 2012, Ranjith de Silva, Secretary to the Ministry of Ports and Civil Aviation told www news lk today.

According to the Ministry of Ports and Civil Aviation, 8,000 acres have been set apart for the country's second international airport and preliminary work on the 3.5 kilometre runway is already underway.

He said plans are afoot to launch training programmes for youth who will be the potential employees of the airport. Once completed, this project will create 2,000 direct and 5,000 indirect employment opportunities.

The new airport will be a boon to the local aviation industry while being a catalyst for the economic development of the southern province through the enabling of international trade, tourism, vocational training and employment.

The new airport will be geared to support both international and domestic travel, air-sea cargo transshipment in conjunction with the Hambanthota sea port and will be the alternative to BIA. It will be ready for operations in 2012.

The project will be carried out under two stages of development. 'Stage I - Initial Development' will include Basic Aerodrome Facilities, Runway, Apron, Taxi way, Passenger and Cargo Terminals.

It will also have Access roads, accommodation for officials, fuel farm, sewerage treatment plant, water supply facilities, meteorological building, fire building, catering facility and car park.

'Stage II - Second Stage Development' will include a full length parallel Taxi way, a flying school, an airport hotel and recreational facilities.