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| Sunday, 3 April 2005 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Airbus A380 to land at BIA by Anton Nonis The largest aircraft in the world-Airbus A380, which upto now eluded flights to Sri Lanka due to non-availability of required `aprons' (parking bays), have agreed to land at Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) from next year. To overcome the shortcoming, four parking slots were constructed at the airport. All this time, BIA had only 17 parking slots. But, these slots did not allow parkings for the larger category aircraft including the A380s. As a result the larger aircraft did not land here. Airport officials said this had deprived valuable foreign exchange earnings for the country. The four bays constructed newly could accommodate even the largest type of aircraft including the A380s. The four slots covered an area of 56,000 square metres. Airport Manager, I.M. Razeek said officials of the Airbus Company of France which operates A380 flights, came here recently. They were on an inspection tour of the four parking bays. The Airbus officials had expressed satisfaction on the slots. They had agreed to commence operations to Sri Lanka from 2006. Emirates will fly the planes. An A380 airbus could accommodate 700 passengers at a time. Months of April, May, June, October, November and December are said to be peak periods when several flights would arrive at Katunayake. Razeek said they have planned to build another four aprons before the year is out. The total number of aprons at the airport would then be 25. |
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