Sri Lanka Develops Ratmalana Airport into a City Airport this Year. Other Regional Airports to be Upgraded

05th April 2011, www.dailynews.lk, By Indunil Hewage

The Government is planning to develop the Ratmalana airport into a city airport this year. In addition facilities at the Ampara, Jaffna and Koggala airports will be also upgraded.

Improvements to the existing terminal building, repair to the runway, taxiway and apron, reconfiguration to the aerodrome for the use of corporate jet traffic would be done as a short-term development project of the Ratmalana airport.

Under the medium-term of the Ratmalana airport development project, constructing a new terminal, control tower, taxiway, apron and runway, extension towards the Weras ganga will take place shortly.

Under the Ampara airport development scheme, runway development, road network improvements, navigational equipment installations, constructing a terminal for civil movements and apron will be implemented.

Facilities at the Koggala and Jaffna airports will also be upgraded in keeping with the ongoing domestic airports upgrading process.

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Sri Lanka Domestic Airports to be Commercialized under Public Private Partnerships

29th December 2010, www.news360.lk

Sri Lanka says, work towards transforming several domestic airports to commercial airports is now underway.

Secretary to the Ministry of Ports and Aviation Ranjith de Silva said, among those airports ranks Palaly, Trincomalee, Ampara and Ratmalana.

He said, the commercialization of the above Airports will be carried out under the basis of public – private partnerships.

According to De Silva, already a private party has forwarded a proposal showing willingness to develop Ratmalana airport into a commercial airport.

The Government expect investments to come into develop runaways and terminals along with other facilities in the above airports.

Once the Domestic Airports are commercialized, a air travelers to Sri Lanka can directly rchase a ticket to the above airports from any location in the world.

Citing an example De Silva said, “A passenger boarding in in from Heathrow airport can directly purchase a ticket to the Palaly airport”

“He will have to get down from BIA and get into a domestic flight flying to Palaly”, added the Aviation Ministry Secretary.

Sri Lanka Air Force Helitours Air Service Launched under Discover Serendipity Theme

19th July 2010, www.island.lk, By Dasun Edirisinghe

Sri Lanka Air Force will re-launch its domestic air service ‘Helitours’ today (19) at No. 395, Galle Road, Colombo 03 (Colpetty).

Helitours flies under the theme "Discover Serendipity" rebranded with a new-look and state-of-the-art office in the city.

"State-of-the- art office space is not the only new feature of Helitours. For the first time in domestic aviation history, helicopters will be used to introduce scheduled flights, creating another milestone for the SLAF," said Group Captain Janaka Nanayakkara, the SLAF spokesman.

He told The Island Financial Review that the move is aimed at catering to the growing demand and the convenience of the clientele, while simultaneously taking domestic air travel to new heights.

He said that the Helitours fleet boasts of more than twenty fixed wing aircraft and helicopters including Bell-206, also known as the Jet Ranger, Bell- 212, Bell- 412 and Mi-17.

The seating capacity of the Jet Ranger is 04 while the Bell- 212 and Bell- 412 can accommodate 08 persons, Nanayakkara said adding the Mi-17 being the largest helicopter in the Helitours fleet has seating capacity of 20.

The SLAF owned aircrafts AN 32 B and Y-12 are also use for Helitorus and the aircrafts have 45 and 15 seating capacity respectively.

Nanayakkara said: Since the dawn of peace, Helitours has expanded their services, bringing new destination routes under its wings. Scheduled flights to three new routes of Batticaloa, Ampara and Anuradhapura operate from Ratmalana Air Force base every Tuesday. In addition, Helitours continues to fly to Palaly on Monday, Wednesday and Friday while the flights to China Bay in Trincomalee are on Monday and Friday.

He said that their aim is to offer an aircraft for the general public at lowest cost and all revenues would go to the Treasury.

Helitours offers both scheduled flights and chartered flights to and from any part of Sri Lanka including city to airport transfers since its inception in 1972. The brainchild of Air Marshal Paddy Mendis, Helitours was incorporated as a strategic business unit of SLAF to meet the needs of aviation and tourism in Sri Lanka.

More info: Sri lanka Air Force Helitours