Archives

By Channa Kasturisinghe

The tussle between the Airport and Aviation Services Ltd (AASL) and the SriLankan Airlines over the non-payment of landing fee is unlikely to be settled before January 14.

Earlier the AASL had threatened the SriLankan Airlines that it would withdraw their services to the airline from January 1, 2003 if the latter failed to pay over Rs. 370 million landing charges overdue for a prolonged period of time. The airline has been delaying the payment of full amount which was due, saying that it qualified for certain concessions.

According to the SriLankan Airlines sources, its Board is scheduled to meet on January 13 to come to a final decision on how much the airline owes to the AASL.

At a recent meeting chaired by the Secretary of the Ministry of Transport Highways and Civil Aviation, Cecil Amarasinghe the airline has agreed to settle the matter by January 14.

"If the SriLankan Airlines failed to make this payment we would have no other alternative but to withdraw our services which would prevent the airline from landing its aircraft at the Colombo International Airport," the AASL Chairman, Hemasiri Fernando told the Daily News yesterday.

He said that the airline has to pay the full amount due and there would be no reduction as the AASL has to meet its financial needs.

"In fact we have not been charging the SriLankan Airlines parking fees on its aircraft which is a concession enjoyed by no other airline. We would continue with that concessions, but we are not in a position to accept anything other than the full amount due," Fernando said. According to the Civil Aviation Department sources the AASL has no legal authority to give any concession to SriLankan Airline as it is a violation of the International Civil Aviation Organisation regulations.

"It is said that the SriLankan Airlines is claiming a 25 percent reduction on the landing charges as a concession. But it is discriminatory as far as the other airlines using the AASL services are concerned," a Department official told the Daily News.

The Chief Financial and Administrative Officer of the SriLankan Airlines, Neeraj Kumar said that the discussions on the actual amount the Airlines should pay the AASL were still going on and would settle the issue immediately .

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager