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| Saturday, 14 August 2004 |
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Expo Air flies to Male by Shirajiv Sirimane Expo Air's Ratmalana- Male flight creates aviation history. After a lapse of almost 30 years, an International revenue passenger flight operated by Expo Air took off from Colombo Airport, Ratmalana to Male. The flight included 41 leisure travellers to the Maldives on a day excursion. The flight departed at 8 a.m. from Ratmalana and the package included a buffet lunch at the Garden Cafe of Giravaru Resort Hotel and a city tour of Male on a speed boat. The Expo Air is one of the 3 domestic airlines, approved to operate International Charter Flights by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of Sri Lanka, and becomes the first airline of the three to embark on an International flight. Director CEO Expo Air, Sabri Marikar said that the airlines is now confident of operating regular charter flights to Male. "We are hoping to tie up with resorts and hotels in Maldives to offer special two or three day packages for which there is a demand," he said. "We are exploring the possibility of operating similar charters to the Indian destinations such as Chennai, Trivandrum, Trichy and Bangalore," he said. Director, Sales and Marketing Seraj Mohamed said that this flight out of Ratmalana Airport is certainly a great leap towards developing the domestic airfields. "We are appreciative of the collective efforts of the Director General, Civil Aviation Authority Customs, Controller of Immigration & Emigration and the Chairman Airport & Aviation Services and the Ratmalana Airport Management for the conversion of the infrastructure of the airport to accommodate areas for frontier formalities such as Customs and Immigrations. Mohamed added that the aviation industry is hopeful that Ratmalana Airport will be developed for regional flight schedules in the future. "When this is done we will operate international passenger operations on a regular basis," he said. Given the time taken to travel to Katunayake airport this second International Airport will certainly have a tremendous advantage. It is learnt that the Aviation Ministry, Civil Aviation Authority and Airport & Aviation Services are presently in consultation to develop this airport and many other domestic airfields. "The main drawback for Ratmalana to be used for international traffic is the lack of a proper custom office for which the Ministry will address soon, an official from the Ministry of Aviation said. Expo also operates regular fights to Jaffna. |
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