Jaffna Airport refurbishment completed to resume flights on Friday

The refurbishment of Pallaly Civil Airport as the Jaffna International Airport has been hurriedly completed by reinstalling some of the modern equipment of Katunayake International airport to resume international flights from Friday July 1, informed sources said.

It has been revealed that an x-ray machine at the Katunayake International airport has been removed and installed at Jaffna Airport as it doesn’t have a sufficient number of such machines at present.

Some of the security checking equipment are still to be installed at this airport and such equipment cannot be imported into the country hurriedly to meet the urgent need of the Jaffna International Airport, a senior official who wished to remain anonymous said.

At the moment there was no definite plan relating to the number of international flights which are to be handled by the Jaffna airport, he said adding that the redevelopment of the airport has been expedited due to Indian pressure.  

International flights at Jaffna International Airport are scheduled to resume next month, with plans to attract new commercial airlines operating into new destinations beyond India.

The Palaly airport was reopened as Jaffna International Airport in 2019, following the completion of the redevelopment project, with the support of India.

Initially, India’s Alliance Air conducted three weekly flights from Chennai to Palaly for a short period but it came to an abrupt halt in late 2019.

As the present runway can only accommodate 75-seater flights, instructions were given to the airport officials to commence groundwork on expanding the runway with Indian assistance while a duty free centre will be established within the airport premises. (Bandula).