Domestic airline to commence operations from Colombo to East: PM

A domestic airline company is to begin flight operations from Colombo to East in few weeks time, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had revealed.

Prime Minister had revealed this to Chamber of Tourism Industry Sri Lanka A.M. Jauffer whom he had met on Thursday.

Jauffer said he had informed the Prime Minister that there should be a proper ground situation for an airline to start operations. “I told the Prime Minister that local company operating flights between Colombo and the East was fine but ground situation should be set for such a thing. Many local bodies in the East do not have fire brigade services. UDA does not allow flights to operate without fire engines around and I told him that this situation should be corrected.”

Also he had suggested that air fares should be made affordable so that more local tourists could make use of the service. “Further I told the Prime Minister that domestic airports should be developed. Developing the Sigiriya airfield into a domestic airport would help the tourism industry immensely,” he added while stating that he had also stressed for reducing airfares by removing the 30 percent taxes which are currently imposed.

“I also told Mr. Wickremesinghe that there should a passenger vessel service around the country and to add luxury carriages for trains in order to attract tourists, he said. Jauffer said Prime Minister had agreed for most these suggestions. Recommencing the suspended Heli ‘Tours operations by Sri Lanka Air Force with regular flights to Ampara and Batticoloa, establishing a hotel school in Arugam Bay, constant supply of clean water especially to the East and establishing a tourism zone covering Sangamamkanda, Urani, Panama and Okanda are some of the other proposals which Chamber of Tourism and Industry in Sri Lanka had come up with.