Sri Lanka's sole international airprot has plans to expand further if traffic grows beyond existing capacity with the end of a three decade internal war, a senior official said. Existing capacity at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), north of Colombo, is enough to handle aircraft, passenger and cargo movements until 2013, under current projections, said Samantha Abeywardena, senior assistant airport manager.
Abeywardena of Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka), which operates the island's airports, said there had been a significant increase in traffic at the airport in June, just a month after the end of the war.
Govenrment forces defeated the Tamil Tiger separatists in May, ending a 30-year conflict that had retarded economic growth and kept tourists at bay.
Abeywardena said the airport authority has plans to further expand the BIA, the island's main gateway, should traffic grow beyond current projections.
"We're geared at the BIA - the runways, taxiways, parking bays, pier, boarding gates, bus gates, and aerobridges are adequate to manage up to 2013. The three cargo terminals are also adequate until 2013.
"In our future plans under phase two, stage two of our expansion plan, if passenger, cargo or airline movements go up, we'll have a split level terminal with a new pier and eight aero bridges (for passengers to board or disembark from aircraft."
Abeywardena said the airport and aviation industry was very sensitive to security concerns and had witnessed harp drops in traffic after upsurges of violence in recent years.
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