“Open Sesame” for Mattala
View(s):One thing you cannot grudge against the Government! Things are happening: Committees (too many?) are appointed; taxes are imposed, disposed or suspended; mega development projects like the Megapolis are on the cards, etc. Among these are some significant developments in the travel and tourism sector. While Sri Lanka this year marks 50 years of organised tourism in the country (the flagship event being a UN organized ‘peace and tourism’ conference in Passekudah, two weeks ago), the costly Mattala airport it appears is finally going to get the business it desperately needs while the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) is not only getting a facelift (under an earlier regime schedule) but is being closed for three months next year.
Exclusively reported in the Sunday Times last week, the closure of the BIA during daytime from January 6 to April 6, 2017 to undertake urgent (and required by international regulations) renovations to the 30 year-old runway and the management of the flights would be one of the most challenging and critical exercises to be handled by the airport management. While the airport handles an average 170 flights a day, around 60 flights operate during the period 8.30 am and 4.30 pm (the times the airport is scheduled to be closed during January-April 2017), all or most of these day flights which would be rescheduled at night.
However all these day flights will be rescheduled at night is still under discussion by the authorities. Also under discussion is whether Mattala airport needs to be co-opted in an emergency and/or whether some flights may take off from there with a shuttle bus and/or whether a shuttle flight between Ratmalana and Mattala is necessary. The biggest problem that airport authorities would face is whether they have the capacity to manage the congestion at the airport. Already the airport is bursting at the seams, annually handling more than its capacity, while a new terminal is coming up for which construction is to start in November.
Sometimes the airport is congested with long queues outside ticket counters with check-in taking as much as 30 minutes, despite efforts by airport authorities to speed up the process. With extra flights during a 16-hour window (when all flights operate), airport authorities and airline staff would be taxed to the hilt. Furthermore ,sections of the airport are likely to be sealed as the renovations get underway in November. Delays in flights will exacerbate the situation, particularly in the case of SriLankan Airlines which is facing a crisis of sorts at the moment. However by January 2017 a new partner would hopefully have been found and the airline brought under new management.
All these require efficiency to rise to a never-before level at the airport. It calls for smooth coordination between airline staff and airport staff, particularly ground staff, precise coordination between the control tower, incoming and outgoing flights and other connected agencies, among other matters. Efficiency levels at the airport would be tested to the maximum and success would not only benefit the country but also place Sri Lanka as a well-managed international airport in crisis situations. In the meantime, Mattala is also likely to be up and running (by next January) as an active and bustling airport.
The Government has called for international expressions of interest in investing and managing the airport with some significant concessions which even BIA doesn’t have. These concessions are however applicable only for Mattala and not the BIA. For instance, Mattala investors would be entitled to all ‘9 freedoms in the air’. This is much more than the ‘open skies’ policy. Under international aviation covenants, ‘9 freedoms of the air’ gives an airline the freedom to fly over Sri Lankan airspace, pick up passengers from an airline’s home base (example Dubai in the case of Emirates) to Sri Lanka and back, carry passengers to any destination outside Sri Lanka and for pick up passengers from another country (other than the home base) and land in Sri Lanka.
In the case of the BIA, foreign airlines are restricted to carrying passengers from Colombo to another destination other than the home base. For example Emirates can carry passengers from Colombo to Dubai only and passengers have to take a connecting flight to another destination. It cannot operate a direct flight from Colombo to another destination (other than Dubai), a concession permitted only for the national carrier – SriLankan Airlines. Such a freedom (called the ‘Fifth Freedom Right’) is in most cases reserved for the national carrier of a country. However, in a desperate bid to get the costly Mattala airport, for which the Government is in debt to a Chinese bank (over $200 million loan), working to at least half capacity, the authorities have offered the “9 freedoms of the air” concession to make it more attractive to investors.
This means that any airline operating through Mattala can carry passengers direct to any destination in the world and in the same context bring passengers from any country (outside a home base) into Mattala. This is a significant development and needs to be managed carefully to ensure SriLankan Airlines, which is already losing customers when it pulls out of Frankfurt and Paris in November in addition to battling competition with cheaper flights from West Asian carriers, doesn’t get the short end of the stick. This is particularly so if some day flights at BIA are rescheduled to operate from Mattala.
This is also in the context where the government has, rightly and based on public opinion (also confirmed by a poll by the Business Times and its polling partner Research and Consultancy Bureau), decided to retain ownership of the airline and only allow a new manager. At the end of the day, the closure of the BIA needs to be managed carefully to ensure the least amount of congestion and inconvenience while the ‘open doors’ policy at Mattala also needs to be managed judiciously, so as not endanger SriLankan Airlines which is already “in the ‘doghouse”