Sri Lanka aviation hub aspirations hit by air raids

A trimming of services to Sri Lanka by major international carriers is undermining Colombo's aspirations to be a regional aviation hub, in addition to hitting the island's tourist industry.
Singapore Airlines halted daytime flights to Sri Lanka Monday, following Tamil Tiger air intrusions into the South, while Emirates said its suspension would remain, dashing earlier expectations that it would resume operations soon.
Colombo airport has become a hub for the subcontinent in recent years with a rising number of Indian travellers using the island to travel to the Middle East, Europe and East Asia.
Sri Lanka has also been systematically liberalizing air services agreements, and its major push for hub status began in 2002 when the government lit a fuse and unilaterally gave visa-on-arrival to Indian nationals following a ceasefire agreement signed with the Tamil Tigers.
Soon after, Sri Lanka also pushed for Indian private carriers to come to the island at time when they were restricted to domestic flying and state airlines were unable to expand to meet the demand created by the visa liberalization.
Samarajiva was part of the Indo-Lanka joint negotiation team that effectively transformed the South Asian aviation industry with India giving private carriers the right not only to fly to Sri Lanka but to other countries as well.
How much of a hub an airport really is, could be seen from the share of transit passengers. In 2002 Colombo handled 2.7 million passengers with 10.4 percent of them transiting.
By 2004 total traffic had shot up to 4 million, growing 26 percent in that year alone, while Chennai lagged behind at 2 million and fast overhauling Mumbai which handled 5.3 million passengers that year but was growing slowly.
Sri Lanka's economic liberalization slowed after 2004 and violence escalated, but the seeds sown in 2002 continued to bear fruit.
The suspension of the Singapore night flights would effectively stymie other carriers who were feeding Colombo.
"That is a very serious problem for all the Indian flights that come here because there won’t be any other aircraft to terminate to," Samarajiva said.
The big blow came when the Tigers started flying night sorties to Colombo culminating in the attack on the gas and petroleum storage facilities near Colombo which caused little real damage.
The attack came only days after Cathay resumed flights from a previous suspension after the first rebel air raid on March 26.
01/05/07 Lanka Business Online, Sri Lanka

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Foreign May 2007