BIA will not be shut down, says AASL Chief

Tuesday, 17 March 2020 00:32 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Fully-fledged sterilisation program to be repeated once in three days at BIA

AASL Chief says overall passenger movement per day at BIA has dropped by 100%

Security forces personnel seen engaged in COVID-19 mitigation initiatives at the Bandaranaike International Airport

By Charumini de Silva

The Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Ltd. yesterday said there was no reason to shut down the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), noting that stringent measures have been put in place against the coronavirus (COVID-19) threat.

“There is no requirement to shut down the operations of the airport at the moment. We have taken meticulous steps to control the spread of COVID-19 within the airport premises and we have been able to manage it very well so far,” AASL Chairman Major General (Rtd.) G.A. Chandrasiri told the Daily FT.

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) yesterday wrote to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa listing closure of the BIA as one of the recommended measures including a one-week shutdown of it to manage the COVID-19. Chandrasiri said that the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) and the airport staff were engaged in a program of disinfecting the BIA premises and its surroundings yesterday.

“Infection prevention and control measures were conducted yesterday covering all parts of the airport premises to prevent the outbreak of COVID-19. This fully-fledged program of sterilisation would be repeated once in three days,” he added.

However, AASL Chief said that the number of overall passengers handled per day at the airport has dropped by 100% as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. “On average we handle about 4,000 to 5,000 passengers per day at the airport, but now with this global pandemic of COVID-19, it has come down to 2,000 passengers per day. Although there is a drop in arrival numbers, there is no major change in departure of passengers at present,” Chandrasiri added.

The Government on Sunday extended travel restrictions to those arriving from UK, Belgium and Norway for two weeks, bringing the number of countries in the list to over 15. Other countries are Korea, Iran, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, Qatar and Bahrain.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) also on Sunday decided to temporarily close the Jaffna International Airport (JIA) for two weeks. The decision to stop international flights was taken as part of the effort to contain the spread of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka. However, JIA is open for all domestic flights.