Air South Asia eyes the Maldives’ market

Air South Asia (formally Holiday Air), while awaiting a launch date for the airline by the government in order to do the ground work for the Air Operating Certificate (AOC), is looking at Maldives to start operations there.

“We are waiting Ministry of Aviation approval for an operational start date," Arjun Ruzaik, CEO Air South Asia told The Sunday Times FT. Parakrama Dissanayake, Director General Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said the CAA has recommended to the Ministry for Air South Asia to be given approval to start work on the AOC. "We gave them the greenlight or provisional approval to start work to establish the airline in December, 2005.

They could not complete the work and the timeline was extended by three months," he explained. He said Air South Asia tried, but could not complete the required work to obtain the AOC. "We have recommended to the Ministry of Aviation to give the greenlight for the airline to resume work and the government approval is needed for this purpose," Dissanayake added. Ruzaik said the airline has not given up on Sri Lanka given the level of investment that has been pledged and allocated to the country by the airline. "While we are awaiting government approval, we are also looking at the Maldives to establish a budget airline," he confirmed.

He explained that the provisional approval was initially granted to the airline (then Holiday Air) in December 2005, which was valid for six months. "The Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) was undergoing renovations at the time and the Airport and Aviation Authority (AAA) sent a letter to us in April 2006 saying that they can accommodate our office at the premises only in October 2006 due to a limitation of space. We informed the CAA and the CAA in turn had informed the Ministry," he explained further.

He added the Ministry granted them an extension till October that year taking into consideration the situation, but the AAA had written again in August 2006 saying the airline can be accommodated only in February - March last year. "We informed the CAA about this and we are awaiting the Ministry approval for a fresh start date since," he said.

Dissanayake confirmed that there was a limitation of space. "This was not the reason they did not get the approval at the time. They could not complete the ground work for the AOC," he said. Ruzaik noted that the airline is awaiting the start date to launch the airline, as part of the planning procedure for the AOC is inextricably linked to this date.