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Landing fee waiver to be further extended

10 Jul 2021

  • Concessions hardly brought in revenue: Tourism Min.  

By Imsha Iqbal  The waiver granted for aircraft landing and parking charges for aircrafts that come to Mattala International Airport (MIA) and Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) is set to be extended further, The Sunday Morning Business learns.  Speaking to us, Ministry of Tourism Additional Secretary for Aviation Sunil Gunawardena said that in accordance with the instructions of the Minister of Tourism Prasanna Ranatunga, they are currently preparing the bill in order to further extend the already provided concessions for the aforementioned airports. “Under the instructions of the Ministry of Tourism, we (the Ministry) is working with the intention of extending these concessions for both the airports. Following the Cabinet approval, it (the decision on the concessionary extension) would be gazetted,” he said. However, Gunawardena said that the expectation of attracting international airlines with the purpose of increasing revenue from them to the country went unsuccessful due to the dramatic changes of the pandemic all over the world with the detection of novel and mutated variants of the virus.  “It is obvious that the target was not achieved with the chaotically unpredictable situation,” he said, implying that further extension would be necessary. However, he said he is optimistic about the further extension of the aforesaid concession to both International Airports of the country. Accordingly, this concessionary extension is, in fact, the second extension following the initial approval of the Cabinet of Ministers.  On 15 February 2021, the Cabinet of Ministers granted the approval on extending the release of Landing and Parking Charges for international airlines which arrive at BIA and the Mattala Airport further to 19 July 2021, a six month extension.     The Cabinet of Ministers granted the approval of providing these two airports releasing of Landing Charges as well as the Aircraft Parking Charges on 21 December 2020 when the measures were taken to open the airports in the island for the period from 26 December 2020 to 19 January 2021 as per the health guidelines. The International Airlines were operated aligned with a specific schedule prepared with the Ministry of Tourism along with the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL).  This proposal was initially made by the Minister in charge of Tourism with the purpose of attracting airlines due to the fact that the International Aviation Sector was drastically affected because of the prevailing pandemic. Thus, in order to encourage the International Airlines to operate flights to Sri Lanka during the period from 26 December 2020 to 19 January 2021, the waiver was given.  According to the statistics that was provided by the Ministry of Tourism to The Morning,  a total of 17,469 tourists have arrived in the country up to 4 July following the the most recent reopening of the borders of the country for the tourists on 1 June.  Also, a total of 2,258 tourists arrived under the pilot project which was launched last December 2020 and the highest number of tourists arrival reported in March 2021 which was around 4,581.

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