Sri Lanka falls short of liberalising ‘open skies’
Sri Lanka remains committed to controls on moves to liberalise air transportation in the country even as the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) international conference in Colombo this week sought to enhance the implementation of open skies throughout its member states.
Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva handing over the ICAN special edition copy of the Guwansara magazine to ICAO Air Transport Bureau Director Boubacar Djibo at the ICAN 2017 conference in Colombo on Monday.
Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva addressing the ICAO organised conference the ICAO Air Services Negotiation (ICAN) 2017 inauguration held at the BMICH on Monday stated though the level of state control on air transport, popularly termed as liberalisation or de-regulation is envisaged, has reduced, there is still a need to protect the national carrier – SriLankan Airlines.
About 75 states attended the December 4-8 conference with around 500 delegates.
There is a risk of anti-competitive behaviour (among member states) that makes governments to step-in to assist the national carrier operate profitably, he noted adding this was the constraint that Sri Lanka faced in liberalising air transport.
SriLankan Airlines and other carriers face unfair competition from their West Asian counterparts who are said to be increasingly funded by their respective governments. However, since of late at least one of these, Oman Air has lost such funding from their government due to the current crisis prevalent there.
The minister also noted that the government has taken a series of measures in respect of the country’s national civil aviation policy. The policy document is currently under cabinet consideration.
However, the country’s only southern international airport the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) is enjoying all nine freedoms of the air, the minister said. But this airport has attracted no interest from international carriers as it lacks sufficient infrastructural connectivity.
He also asked the ICAO to take into consideration the high fees charged for training of personnel and to adopt measures to assist developing states to get their professionals qualified.
ICAO Air Transport Bureau Director Boubacar Djibo said that they supported liberalisation of air transport and insisted that they would want to take into account the concerns of all partners of the industry.
Working on the theme of “Working together to ensure no country is left behind”, he noted that this event encourages increased participation and negotiations among states on air services agreements.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) Chairman Udaya Nanayakkara during the panel discussion urged that Sri Lanka needs to liberalise air services in order to attract more airlines to the country that would thereby generate more tourist traffic.
He highlighted Dubai’s example of adopting an open skies policy prior to even establishing their own national carrier and later signing up bilateral agreements and explained how that product portfolio had expanded thereby transforming the desert nation into a tourism destination.
He pointed out that he was aware that aviation policy would be further liberalised adding that Sri Lanka’s geographical situation ensured that air routes were over the island.
“We have not made very much use of this God’s gift to us”, due to inconsistencies in the country’s aviation and shipping policies, Mr. Nanayakkara said.
He also explained the changing landscape and skyline of Colombo and the increasing prevalence of significance of the tourism industry that is set to attract five million by 2020 and insisted that they were close to reaching the US$200 per day tourist-spend for this year.
The promotion bureau chief also impressed upon the gathering about the vast product portfolio in attracting tourists to the country like the World War I and II ships sunk and lying on the sea beds around the island.
However, during the discussion stage of the conference, Civil Aviation Authority Director General H.M.C. Nimalsiri explained that while they were open to the idea of liberalising the air services of Sri Lanka they were also compelled to assist the national carrier to increase their viability.
He noted that at a time when Sri Lanka ran into security issues most foreign airlines were quick to pack up and go while it was the national carrier that continued to operate.
Sri Lanka would be going for third and fourth freedoms of open skies (that allows basic rights to airlines to operate from one’s own country into Sri Lanka and back) but would be slow to take up on the fifth freedom of the air (the right of an airline to fly from one’s own country to two foreign states) as it could affect the existing markets and dilutes all carriers operating on that market, Mr. Nimalsiri said.
The national carrier continues to be an observer at air services agreements with the Civil Aviation Authority in Sri Lanka.
Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) CEO Dr. Mario Hardy also insisted that the aviation industry needs to liberalise and mooted the Indonesian government’s idea of attracting travellers by opening up the destination with a no visa policy.
IATA Senior Vice President Paul Steele said during the panel discussion that the aviation industry is a regulated industry as it was not possible to operate international flights without global standard, but however noted that in this context they had introduced smarter regulation.
He was critical of how some African states’ protectionist policy explaining that sometimes to fly from East to West Africa they would need to go through Europe which in the twenty first century was an unusual phenomenon.
Mr. Steele also remained critical about the taxes governments imposed on travelers to their states highlighting that this was “too much.”
Ghana Civil Aviation Authority Director General Simon Allotey outlined the actions the African states had adopted towards a sustainable development of air transport in the continent.
In this context he explained that the states would be looking at liberalising air transport, foster consumer protection, engage in fair competition rules, establish infrastructure and intermodal transport services, ensure the promotion of essential services and tourism and capacity building in air transport among a host of other measures.
Currently there are 3.8 billion passengers globally who fly on about 1400 airlines. These carry about 53 million freight on the 28,000 aircrafts taking off from 4,130 airports around the world and monitored from 173 air navigation centres.