Etihad A380 stops over at BIA
A second airline, Etihad Airways has taken to the Colombo skies to land its largest aircraft A380 on Wednesday at 10 pm due to technical requirements.
Airport and Aviation Services Ltd. Executive Director Johanne Jayaratne told the Business Times on Friday that Etihad’s A380 landed at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) for a crew change and refueling.
Since this is the second airline after Emirates to stop over at Colombo, authorities were hopeful that similar aircraft would in future consider using the BIA terminal for their A380’s technical or commercial requirements.
Etihad had given adequate notice prior to landing at the BIA and was flying from Sydney to Abu Dhabi and was on the ground for about one-and-a-half hours, Mr. Jayaratne said.
Meanwhile, authorities have been in discussion with Emirates to carry out commercial operations as well at the BIA on its A380 flight with embarking and disembarking.
Todate, Mr. Jayaratne said that Emirates has carried out seven technical stops at the BIA and one commercial stop between their flights to and from Dubai and Australia.
In the meantime, Indigo Airlines was scheduled to commence flights on Saturday starting with 21 flights per week which is a first for any airline that commenced operations to the country, Mr. Jayaratne noted.
He explained that in this respect Indigo’s operation into Colombo was significant as this would cater increasingly to the Indian tourist traffic to the country. India generates the highest number of tourists to Sri Lanka.
Mr. Jayaratne said that they were also in discussion with Indigo in going forward to carry out a smaller aircraft of the ATR 72 type to operate scheduled flights into Ratmalana.
This would help the airport to develop its potential as a regional facility, it was pointed out.