SriLankan and AASL in bipartite agreement
Dharma SRI ABEYRATNE
SriLankan Airlines and Airport and Aviation Services Limited entered
into a bipartite agreement yesterday aiming to strengthen its services.
The agreement was signed by Airport and Aviation Services Limited
Chairman Prasanna J Wickramasooriya and SriLankan Airlines Chief
Executive Officer Manoj Gunawardena.
According to the 30-year agreement, the operations of both entities
will be streamlined while improving there qualities. The main three
services of the airport will be subjected to qualitative improvement.
Accordingly, ground handling, cargo handling and catering service of the
airport will be carried out jointly to provide a better service.
SriLankan Airlines handles around 60 percent of catering while other
institutions handle the balance 40 percent.
Civil Aviation Minister Priyankara Jayaratne said the Ministry will
look into ways of getting the 40 percent potential market. In addition,
other services and facilities of the airport such as office and customer
facilities, infrastructure development etc will be regulated and
improved.
The Civil Aviation Ministry on President Mahinda Rajapaksa's advice
is conducting activities to convert Sri Lanka as Asia's Aviation hub.
The agreement signed will play a vital role to Sri Lanka to become
the aviation hub of Asia. Sri Lankan Airlines has also set a target to
become the Asia's best airline, the Minister Jayaratne added.
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