Costly BIA ground handling delays more Jet Airways flights to Colombo

India’s privately-owned international carrier Jet Airways said yesterday that it was keen to expand services to Sri Lanka but costly ground handling charges at the Bandaranaike International Airport were a deterrent. 

“Given the growing demand for Sri Lanka, we are keen to increase our services from the current two flights per day from Mumbai. However, cost factors, especially high ground handling charges, have posed some setbacks,” Jet Airways Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing Colin said.

In Colombo on a business development visit as well as to announce the appointment of a dedicated country manager in Sri Lanka, Neubronner recalled that Colombo was the airline’s first international destination way back in 2004. After having expanded with a daily flight from New Delhi and Chennai, the airline scaled services down due to a downturn in traffic owing to the conflict and rising costs at BIA.As per aviation industry estimates, ground handling charges at the BIA are more expensive than New York and more than double that of Singapore. 

However, he said Sri Lanka remains a key strategic market and in tandem with growing outbound travel and India being Sri Lanka’s biggest tourist source, Jet Airways is evaluating options for expansion. 

“We are looking at several possibilities. One is resuming our Chennai-Colombo and or New Delhi-Colombo services which we suspended sometime back. Another is flying in from a new Indian destination probably Bangalore,” said Neubronner, along with Jet Airways new Country Manager John Victor and General Sales Agent Mack Air parent JKH Senior Vice President and Head of Airlines Travels - Transportation Sector Anil Bandara.

Jet Airways operates over 630 daily flights - 500 domestic and 130 international carrying 75,000 passengers. It serves 51 destinations domestically within a global portfolio of 68 cities. Its fleet comprises Boeing 777-300 ERs, Airbus A330-200/300s, Next Generation Boeing 737s and ATR 72-500/600s. With an average age of 7.07 years, this is one of the youngest fleets in the region.