A whirlwind Srilankan style tour

The national carrier last week took journalists on a whirlwind tour of its operations at the BIA.

Interestingly, the airline thought it best to provide a well chaperoned service with a police escort.

In fact, its senior management was on Asian markets. In the meantime, the airline aims at continuing to expand its facilities and services with a second hangar, totaling aircrafts to 21, and increasing capacity at SriLankan Cargo in addition to installing new equipment there. Administration and Logistics Manager Martin McDonald speaking with the Business Times during a media tour of the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) this week said SriLankan Cargo would look to expand capacity vertically. In the future, he said they would be looking at installing an automated system known as the Automatic Storage and Retrieval System. awaiting journalists at the airport to take them on a tour of their operations at Katunayake: SriLankan Cargo, Engineering and Catering units. But most found arrangements too tiring as they were dragged around the units and then dropped home after dinner, past midnight.

He pointed out that this year they expect a growth of 15-20% amounting to approximately 180, 000 MT compared to 160, 000 MT in 2011. About 25% of cargo is imports whereas 50% is exports, he explained. At the airline’s Engineering unit it was observed that an additional hangar was required as they were currently constrained due to the availability of just one hangar. At present this unit consisting of 420 technicians, 120 engineers and 110 support staff is looking out for work to with other airlines in a bid to increase revenues. So far the unit has attracted only two: Emirates and Air Blue.