Financial Times

Domestic operators get nod for international flights
The Cabinet has given preliminary approval for domestic airline operators to launch international passenger flights. The Aviation Ministry is now evaluating requests by several airlines to operate overseas flights.

Civil Aviation Authority chairman Air Vice Marshal Paddy Mendis said all three domestic airlines and several other operators have asked for permission for international passenger flights from Colombo.

These were being evaluated to ensure fair play in the allocation of routes and destinations and to prevent any overlapping or conflicts that would make such flights unprofitable. The domestic operators were interested mainly to operate to Indian destinations while other airlines want to operate further afield.

Opportunities for other operators to do scheduled international flights opened up with the expiry in March 2004 of the monopoly on such flights held by the national carrier, SriLankan Airlines.

Mendis said there were no restrictions now except those imposed by the bilateral air service agreements Sri Lanka has with other countries. Other carriers were free to operate on routes where SriLankan Airlines has not taken up all the allocated frequencies.

"A lot of work must now be done by the airlines," Mendis said. "They must satisfy the CAA that they meet the requirements for international flights and have proper aircraft and crews."

The government has said it wants to encourage the growth of domestic aviation in the island in an effort to exploit its strategic location. Two domestic airlines, ExpoAir and Aero Lanka, are working on plans to acquire bigger passenger aircraft to launch scheduled international charter flights.

The other operator, Lion Air, has also shown interest in international flights. All three operators were competing on the Jaffna flights, the market for which declined with the opening up of the highway to Jaffna.

Airline industry officials said all three operators found it difficult to operate the Jaffna flights profitably given the decline in the market. Subsequently, Lion Air and ExpoAir struck a code share agreement as the market became saturated and they found it difficult to fill up flights.

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