ifwla - Warehousing and Logistics International

10 Conference Reportclose knit relationship between tourism and the growthof air traffic in Sri Lanka. The government plans toattract 2.5 million tourists by the year 2015 puts inplace many challenges to Sri Lankan Airlines, thenational carrier, which accounts for approximately halfthe passenger movement to and from Sri Lanka. Hewent on to share how Emirates had played a criticalrole in making Dubai the undisputed aviation hub ofthe Middle East since its inception in 1985 and showcasedthat Sri Lankan Airlines could be the catalyst thatmakes Sri Lanka the undisputed aviation hub in theIndian subcontinent.Mr. Jayaseelan also remarked that the rapid growthof the Indian and Chinese markets pose a great opportunityfor Sri Lanka to become an aviation hub by puttingthe required infrastructure in place.Three important ingredients indentified, to attain thehub status were - coordinated schedule, strategic locationand good airport facilities. Unlike the success storiesin Frankfurt Am Main and London, Sri Lanka wishesto entwine tourism as a key player in becoming anair transport hub. The flight schedules of Sri LankanAirlines need to be revised so as to allow foreign transitpassengers to use Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan as theirpreferred transit airport and airline.ABOVE:In order to achieve that, Sri Lankan Professor Alanis also planning to work closely with Waller OBE, theMihin Lanka, the government owned President ofbudget carrier, to facilitate seamless Charteredtransfers. Sri Lankan has already set Institute ofinto motion an aircraft replacement Logistics &programme where they are procuringstate of the art Airbuses to InternationalTransportincrease the frequency and destinationscovered by the national carrier. ered the(right) deliv-Jayaseelan stated that thekeynoteBandaranaike International Airportaddress of thein Colombo should take steps today.face the imminent capacity crunchbeyond 2011 while praising theconstruction of the island’s second international airportwhich is being built in the outskirts of Hambantota inthe deep south of the country.Jayaseelan conceded that Sri Lankan has failed tomake significant inroads in the recent increase of passengernumbers at the airport but reiterated that theywill try harder. Sri Lanka’s strategic location near India,China and Indonesia was cited as a big advantage notIssue No. 3www.ifwla.com