State domination of domestic air travel sees declining trend in industry
View(s):The demand for domestic air travel in Sri Lanka has seen a drastic decline, owing to the Air Force’s dominance in this sector, industry sources say.
“The demand has fallen since most local aircraft routes are operated from the Air Force which other operators don’t enjoy. This takes away from the industry’s competitiveness as others cannot compete with them,” an industry source told the Business Times. He further explained that Air Force aircraft can land at ‘any’ location, which isn’t the same for other civil operators. “They can only land at domestic air strips and this is a reason for an uneven playing field.
This has created many issues, he added, noting that the Ratmalana Airport is almost ‘dominated’ by the Air Force, which has become prohibitive for domestic operators to carry on their business.
“For domestic operations they need the Ratmalana airbase. There’s hardly any expansion in this airport and there’s literally no space for domestic operators’ hangars. There’re interested parties who want to start domestic airlines, but these conditions deter them,” he said, adding that the existing operators also find it hard to do operations in this current situation.
He added that the Air Force should concentrate on state transport needs such as that of the President. Currently there’re some six domestic operators while four more licenses are pending.