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| Tuesday, 30 September 2003 |
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Lion Air goes international from November By Chamitha Kuruppu Sri Lanka's private airline Lion Air, will soon fly to international destinations beginning Sharjah in early November, Chairman Chandran Ratnam told the Daily News yesterday. Lion Air is expected to extend operations to Kathmandu and Dhaka in January and Melbourne and Amsterdam in April next year. The company is to make an initial investment of US 100 million to commence operations, Ratnam said. Lion Air will lease two aircraft, initially DC 9 jet aircraft from South Africa and airbus 340-300 from the United States each having a capacity of a 100 passengers. Ratnam said that the company has received 'verbal acknowledgement' from the Director General of Civil Aviation to commence operations from early November. " We are waiting for written approval from DGCA and hopefully we will receive approval by early next month, he said. When asked whether the charges will be less than SriLankan airlines the national carrier, Chandra Ratnam said that Lion Air will be a good competitor to SriLankan in every aspect. " This is quite an achievement, we are looking forward to give a better service to the passengers and competition to other airlines," he said. Lion Air has a strategic alliance with Ceylinco Consolidates. The airline started domestic operations in 1994 flying to eight destinations including Batticaloa, Amparai, Weerawila, Anuradhapura, Trincomalee, Koggala and Sigiriya. After the government's decision to lift the ban on domestic airlines Lion Air resumed operations in October, 2002. The airline flies to Jaffna eleven times a week. Moves are afoot to resume operations to Trincomalee and Amparai in the near future. We are studying the conditions of the airports prior to commencing operations next month and we will come to a decision, Ratnam said. Meanwhile, Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority H.M.C. Nimalsiri told the Daily News that if the airline is capable of meeting commercial and technical requirements approval will be granted without any delay. The authority has taken this very seriously because this is the first time a private airline has shown an interest to commence international routes, Nimalsiri said. However, other than the initial application to commence international operations Lion Air is yet to meet the authorities and complete a detailed application for further proceedings. Security and safety requirements will also be taken into serious consideration. A detailed inspection will be carried out before giving the approval, he said. |
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