BIA – Palaly air route to open for commercial operations
Sri Lanka is preparing to open its air route from its main international airport at Katunayake to Palaly in Jaffna for commercial flights in a bid to cater to a growing demand in commercial traffic. Currently flights between Colombo and Palaly originate from the Ratmalana airport.
“We are trying to attract domestic operators to bring airplanes which can accommodate about 30-50 passengers between these two airports,” Airport and Aviation Services Ltd. Executive Director Johanne Jayaratne told the Business Times.
He noted that these flights would be scheduled to coincide with the arriving and departing flights from India into BIA and out of BIA.
It has been found that of all domestic routes the one that would have the most potential would be to Jaffna from BIA volume wise, Mr. Jayaratne explained.
It was pointed out that right now there are no scheduled flights operating to Jaffna and in this respect “we are trying to facilitate the network and create the equipment as the infrastructure was not available and we are adjusting the apron space for the aircraft to park.”
However, operators are yet to use this service and take over this new opportunity made available to the industry.