ifwla - Warehousing and Logistics International

10 Conference Report
close knit relationship between tourism and the growth
of air traffic in Sri Lanka. The government plans to
attract 2.5 million tourists by the year 2015 puts in
place many challenges to Sri Lankan Airlines, the
national carrier, which accounts for approximately half
the passenger movement to and from Sri Lanka. He
went on to share how Emirates had played a critical
role in making Dubai the undisputed aviation hub of
the Middle East since its inception in 1985 and showcased
that Sri Lankan Airlines could be the catalyst that
makes Sri Lanka the undisputed aviation hub in the
Indian subcontinent.
Mr. Jayaseelan also remarked that the rapid growth
of the Indian and Chinese markets pose a great opportunity
for Sri Lanka to become an aviation hub by putting
the required infrastructure in place.
Three important ingredients indentified, to attain the
hub status were - coordinated schedule, strategic location
and good airport facilities. Unlike the success stories
in Frankfurt Am Main and London, Sri Lanka wishes
to entwine tourism as a key player in becoming an
air transport hub. The flight schedules of Sri Lankan
Airlines need to be revised so as to allow foreign transit
passengers to use Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan as their
Issue No. 3
preferred transit airport and airline.
ABOVE:
In order to achieve that, Sri Lankan Professor Alan
is also planning to work closely with Waller OBE, the
Mihin Lanka, the government owned President of
budget carrier, to facilitate seamless Chartered
transfers. Sri Lankan has already set Institute of
into motion an aircraft replacement Logistics &
programme where they are procur- Transport
ing state of the art Airbuses to International
increase the frequency and destina- (right) delivtions
covered by the national carrier. ered the
Jayaseelan stated that the
keynote
Bandaranaike International Airport
address of the
in Colombo should take steps to
day.
face the imminent capacity crunch
beyond 2011 while praising the
construction of the island’s second international airport
which is being built in the outskirts of Hambantota in
the deep south of the country.
Jayaseelan conceded that Sri Lankan has failed to
make significant inroads in the recent increase of passenger
numbers at the airport but reiterated that they
will try harder. Sri Lanka’s strategic location near India,
China and Indonesia was cited as a big advantage not
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