SriLankan Cargo handles loads of freight from India to China and vice versa
SriLankan Airlines Cargo is handling freight from India to China and from China to India – two of the largest economies in the world – which proves that the national airline has a world class facility not second to any other airport in the world.
This revelation was made by Chamara Ranasinghe, Head Cargo, SriLankan Airlines when he addressed a media round table at their head office at the World Trade Centre, this week.
He said that they are able to coordinate this cargo traffic between these two large countries with Colombo being a cargo hub. He said “What we are doing is to carry Indian goods to China and Chinese goods to India. We are equipped with all the facilities to deal with this cargo.”
Mr. Ranasinghe said as a national carrier they encourage the freighters and last week, he said that they have felicitated the best freighters and presented awards to them.
Out of all the cargo carried abroad from Sri Lanka, he said more than 50 per cent are perishable items like fruits, vegetable, fish and ornamental plants and through this 100 per cent income is derived to Sri Lanka.
He also divulged that they also have embarked on a unique product called ‘Bag-in’ where people can come to their Cargo Unit in Colombo and hand over cargo like books for children studying abroad, food items, etc up to 100 kg and with less hassle they would be air freighted across to those countries. There is also a customs officer stationed there to make things easier, he added. With this facility, he said they cover more than 100 destinations.
He indicated that due to globalisation the cargo traffic among countries increased tremendously and with this increase they were able to carry cargo throughout the globe.
Due to the airport closure in the mornings (January 6 to April 6), he agreed that there could be certain delays and some inconvenience but he assured that all these hassles would be eliminated by April 7 when the airport is open throughout.
When a journalist queried whether it could be a matter of inefficiency that when perishable goods are brought to be freighted there is a long delay in handling them, Mr. Ranasinghe conceded that they would take all the action to minimize this delay and said that they propose to augment the infrastructure in the near future to meet this obstacle.
When asked whether Mattala Airport at Hambantota could be used to ease the pressure at the Bandaranaike International Airport, Mr. Ranasinghe replied that it is a matter of connectivity. He said that for a container to reach Mattala from Katunayake it would take around six hours and if that could be reduced to something like two hours, he noted that this is possible but most of all (and in the first place), “airlines should fly to Mattala”.