Proposal on Palaly airport development to Cabinet today

By Chathuri Dissanayake

A proposal to develop Palaly Airport through a joint venture with the Air Force and the Civil Aviation Authority will be presented to Cabinet today. 

The proposal to develop the Palaly Airport as a regional airport at a cost of nearly Rs. 2 billion will be jointly presented by the Ministries of Transport and Civil Aviation, Tourism and Policy Planning and Economic Development, Transport Ministry Secretary G.S.Withanage told Daily FT.

The proposal looks at developing the airport as a regional hub, utilising funds from both the Civil Aviation Authority Sri Lanka (CAASL) and the Tourism Development Fund, CAASL CEO H.M.C. Nimalsiri told Daily FT. The development is to be carried out by the Air Force, he said.

The project aims to cater to the increasing tourist demand.

“The airport will be developed to cater to a number of different aircraft types, but our model craft is A320. It is too early to predict the demand, but we expect there to be a good demand from the tourist sector,” he said.

Noting that the availability of domestic flights can drastically reduce travel time for tourists, he said that the project also expects to attract flights from the region.

Further, according to him, the airport once developed will also attract travellers from North, East and North Central provinces, who currently have to travel across the country by road to reach Sri Lanka’s only international airport in Katunayake.

The airport, once developed, will be managed by CAASL and Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) in a model similar to BIA, Withanage said.

“There will be a separate section for civil aviation managed by the CAASL and the Military section managed by the Air force,” he said.

The new proposal also goes in line with the Government’s plan to develop the country’s domestic aviation industry. Another Cabinet paper presented in June sought to work out a possible mechanism to utilise airports under SALF management, which includes the Trincomalee, Sigiriya, Palaly, Hingurakgoda and Koggala airports, in compliance with international standards, which requires the country’s Civil Aviation Authority to handle all domestic aviation. These airports will be made available for the carriers on a needs basis, while carrying out infrastructure development with both Government and donor funding.

The Cabinet paper comes after much controversy over an announcement by Aviation Authority India (AAI) of plans to develop the airport with Indian funding. The, news published in Indian newspapers, and subsequently picked up by local media, prompted Transport Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva to make a statement in Parliament about the Government’s plans to develop the military-managed airport with its own money.