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By Channa Kasturisinghe

Sri Lanka has to continue with its measures taken after the recent attack on the airport to attract more airlines to Colombo in a bid to increase airfreight capacity and boost the export sector, Shehan Aponso, Director, Hemas International Freight (Pte) Ltd., told the Daily News.

He said it is vital to develop the country's airfreight industry if we are to make Colombo a logistics hub in the region.

"Our airport should offer reasonable landing, cargo handling and fuel charges on par with other airports in the region such as Singapore, Malaysia and Dubai. There should be modern cargo terminals to facilitate smooth movement of cargo and we should make sure that Colombo is a commercially viable airport for the airlines," Mr. Aponso said.

"After the terrorist attack on our airport we had to waive off landing charges, handling fees and fuel landing charges to attract airlines.

Although we are not isolated today after the terrorist attack in the United States we must go forward from this point by continuing with the measures we introduced recently," he said. He pointed out the importance of a strong national carrier, which has a role to play in the development in the country taking an example from Singapore and Germany.

"SriLankan Airlines could help generate capacity by way of operating freighters to main hub points such as Singapore and Dubai.

We also need an effective, scheduled carrier capacity to regularise access to air cargo space,"

"We should be able to make the best use of the strategic location of our country. Our proximity to India, would enable us to attract Indian transshipments via Colombo. The fact that India has a huge market and they have difficulties in finding capacity.

This is also a positive point," Mr. Aponso said.

He said while opening our skies to attract more airlines to create excess capacity, Sri Lanka should also ensure that there is an equilibrium between the demand for air cargo space and the supply of it.

" Supply should not be excessive than the demand in which case airlines would not have enough cargo to carry. The Department of Civil Aviation should take steps not create an over supply situation.

The air cargo demand globally fell by about 10 percent this year and Sri Lanka's industrial exports fell by about 12 to 15percent. With the current situation after the US terrorist attack we could expect a further decrease in our export volumes. Although we have less capacity we are not facing an acute space shortage as such, Mr. Aponso said.

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