Open skies policy to attract major airlines to new airport By Damith Wickremasekara The Government will adopt an open skies policy allowing international carriers to operate freely at the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport, Aviation Minister Priyankara Jayaratne said yesterday. Open skies policy is a concept where free market conditions are created for commercial aviation. It [...]

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Mattala gets priority over BIA

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Open skies policy to attract major airlines to new airport

By Damith Wickremasekara

The Government will adopt an open skies policy allowing international carriers to operate freely at the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport, Aviation Minister Priyankara Jayaratne said yesterday.

Open skies policy is a concept where free market conditions are created for commercial aviation. It provides access to international carriers to operate freely without restrictions.

Fire drill at the new airport

“This is a move to attract more international traffic and the new policy will be announced next week,” he said. The minister said the policy would not apply to the Bandaranaike International Airport at Katunayake.

The minister said the open skies policy would create a free market environment for the airline industry. Earlier, the Government had planned to have an open skies policy only for a limited period but now it had decided to extend it for an unlimited period.

He said that among other concessions at Mattala would be a 50 per cent discount on ground handling charges for five years.

He said talks were held with various international airlines including Emirates, Qatar Airways, Ettihad, Air Arabia, Sichuan Airlines of China and the Korean Airlines and they had agreed to fly to Mattala. Talks with other airlines were continuing.

Mr. Jayaratne said a 10-acre land has been allocated to Air Arabia for the construction of a 400 room hotel while a local company had also been allocated land for a hotel project.

The first phase of the new 800-acre airport constructed by China Harbour Engineering Company cost US$ 209 million (Rs 26.7 billion).

Meanwhilem Civil Aviation Director General H.M.C. Nimalasiri has gazetted the official commissioning of Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport for domestic and international air transport services.




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