Fresh start for BIA
07 April 2017Today, the newly renovated sole runway of the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA, IATA Code CMB) will be back in business, with the landing of an all-new SriLankan Airlines Airbus A320 New Engine Option (neo) aircraft. The airport was on the verge of being blacklisted as the last resurfacing was completed in 1986.
The US$ 50 million renovation was an integrated project that included the installation of a new energy-saving LED lighting system for aircraft guidance. The runway will be in a good condition for at least another 20 years or 200,000 aircraft movements. Another significant feature was the widening of the runway from 60 metres to 75 metres, which will facilitate landings and take offs by Airbus A380 aircraft. However, boarding will still have to be by mobile staircase as the terminal aerobridges are still not compatible with the A380. That facility will be available after the next expansion of the airport which is slated to begin this year itself.
Future projects include eight more passenger gates, a domestic terminal, a five-storey car-park, and star class hotels neighbouring the airport for which the Government has already sought proposals. A new split-level passenger terminal building, which separates arrivals and departures vertically, a new pier with eight boarding gates, and 14 passenger boarding bridges, with a dedicated gate comprising two passenger boarding bridges for the new Airbus A380, will be included in the proposed new complex. The project is likely to include enhanced transport options to and from the airport.
When the entire project is completed by around 2020, Colombo will be one of the best airports in the region capable of handling around 15 million passengers a year. It is also time to think about a second runway for the BIA, which can get very busy during certain times of the day.
In an encouraging sign for the virtually brand new airport, several new airlines will be flying to Colombo soon. One of the first will be Silk Air, a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines. We are told that several more airlines are waiting in the wings to fly to Colombo.
The tourism and business community in Sri Lanka has strongly advocated an Open Skies policy which will see at least 60 more aircraft movements per day. This will make more inbound seats available for Colombo, which will be a boon for tourism. Actually, the dearth of airline seats into Colombo has been a bane for Sri Lanka’s tourism industry. One way of addressing this problem, apart from Open Skies, is granting more Fifth Freedom rights (the right given to a third country airline to transport fee-paying passengers to another third country – one good example is the daily Emirates flight to Singapore from Colombo) to foreign airlines. More attractive landing and fuel fees may also induce more airlines to enter Colombo.
This raises the question whether we are actually promoting the BIA among foreign airlines. (This should not be confused with promoting the country as a tourist destination). Most airports around the world have Route Development Officers who scour opportunities for promoting their airports and suggest new city pairs to foreign airlines seeking expansion. As far as we know, Colombo does not have such an officer. His or her duty is to proactively market the airport and its advantages, bringing in foreign airline representatives and attending web-based and physical “Route Shops” and aviation fairs held around the world.
Colombo has the potential to become a bigger regional aviation hub, but we should be more proactive. The BIA, possibly in conjunction with SriLankan and our missions abroad, must seek direct connections to more destinations especially in Europe, Australia and Africa. SriLankan’s pullout from Paris and Frankfurt has created a lacuna vis-à-vis Europe and the BIA should approach established and new European airlines to fill that void. With SriLankan deciding to fly to Australia (Melbourne) from the latter part of the year, Africa should be next. For example, rapidly expanding airlines such as Ethiopian would see potential in a routing such as Addis Ababa-Colombo-Male-Addis Ababa. Colombo should also concentrate on getting more Low Cost Carriers (LCCs).
The partial closure of the BIA also saw an increased demand for the old Colombo Airport in Ratmalana (IATA Code RML) and the Hambantota Rajapaksa International Airport (IATA Code HRI). This is a positive sign. The authorities must now keep up this momentum, perhaps by diverting some of the business jet and regional commercial traffic to Ratmalana. The Government should seriously explore the possibility of expanding the Ratmalana runway to accommodate bigger passenger planes since many other cities have more than one international airport. The Government will also have to address some of the shortcomings at HRI, such as the lack of a proper taxiway and the wrong runway orientation, to attract airlines. Jaffna or Trincomalee would also be ideal as international gateways.
Sri Lanka is in an ideal geographical position to exploit the airlines’ thirst for new routes especially in the Asia Pacific region. The BIA’s new look will be the ideal take-off point for this venture.
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