Airlines asked to reduce ticket prices; BIA ground handling taken off from SriLankan

Ports, Shipping and Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva has requested airlines to reduce ticket prices in view of the fall of the dollar against the rupee and revealed ground handling at Bandaranaike International Airport has been taken off from SriLankan Airlines.

The Minister made this request during a meeting last week with representatives of airlines serving Sri Lanka.

Airlines representatives had revealed that air fares have been reduced by 20% and Minister de Silva requested further reduction to which the airlines had agreed, a statement from the Ministry said.

At the discussions it was revealed that with the gradual decrease of the current economic crisis in the country, more favourable tendencies prevailed for an influx of a large number of tourists to Sri Lanka.

It was revealed that seven more airlines are scheduled to resume services.

The airline representatives at these discussions pointed out that already a traffic jam is experienced at the BIA in Katunayake due to delay in ground handling operations.

The Minister said that after lengthy discussions, it had been decided to transfer the ground handling operations from SriLankan Airlines to Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Ltd.

The representatives of the airlines expressed their gratitude to the Minister for taking fruitful measures to completely resolve issues pertaining to supply of aviation fuel and taking steps to provide fuel at a reasonable price.