President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Japanese Prime Minister to launch Phase II Stage 2 of BIA today:

BIA expands gateway to Sri Lanka

Prasanna J. Wickramasuriya, Chairman Airport Aviation Services Limited.

Envisioning Sri Lanka as an aviation hub marked a turning point in the approach to the development of the national aviation industry. The Mahinda Chinthana envisions a development plan well integrated with other economic activities. It also aims at decentralising the development activities across the island so that their benefits will flow down to all citizens. This includes the development of existing airports, the setting up of new airports, air - sea travel integration, making air travel more.

The hub status in aviation is based on the strategic location of Sri Lanka with respect to the International air routes. Sri Lanka is located midway between the aviation hubs in the Asia - Pacific region and the Middle East. It is also located close to the equator.

This coupled with an exemplary safety record and state of the art air navigation services makes Sri Lanka a natural candidate for an aviation hub.

Bandaranaike International Airport

The Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA),is the first International Airport in Sri Lanka and was the only International Airport until the commissioning of the Mattala - Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) in March 2013. It has been the main international gateway that linked Sri Lanka to the rest of the world, economically, socially and politically.

The construction of an airport in Ceylon that could cater to international air traffic was first considered in 1939. However the historic decision to convert the Royal Ceylon Air Force Base at "Katunayake" to an International Airport came only in 1958.

This was the time the international aviation industry was experiencing its first post war boom. In 1964 work began to modernise the Katunayake airport to handle international traffic and by 1968 the airport had the capacity and all the basic facilities required at that time to promote and sustain international operations. Given the strategic location of Ceylon, the airport soon etched itself firmly on the world map and it was not uncommon to witness even heads of states in the east using the Katunayake airport regularly for transit. The national carrier 'Air Ceylon' also shifted its home base from Ratmalana to Katunayake.

In 1976, Sri Lanka was making urgent preparations to host the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement which was scheduled to bring a large number of heads of states to Colombo.

The airport was given a facelift to convey an image of national pride and also the technological upgrades to ensure the safety and reliability requirements of the arriving heads of states.

The liberalisation of the economy and the boom in the tourism industry brought about a steady increase in the passenger movements and a need for streamlined, state of the art cargo operations. The national carrier re-launched under the name 'Air Lanka' commenced operations in 1979 using BIA as its home base. To cater to the rapid increase in the operational demands in all fronts a master plan was drawn up for the development of BIA in a phased manner based on the forecast growth of passenger and cargo movements.

The year 1983 was an important turning point which saw the operation of BIA being entrusted to Airport and Aviation Services (AASL), a fully government owned company. Airport and Aviation Services took upon itself the task of implementing the phased development project for BIA as a matter of priority. Accordingly Phase I of the BIA development project was launched.

Construction work commenced in 1984 and the bulk of the work was completed by 1988.

Sri Jayawardenepura General Hospital was completed with the grant of 8.5 billion Yen from Japan in September 1983 as the foremost medical hospital in Sri Lanka. The General Hospital contributes to educating nurses by coordinating with the National SJDP Nursing School which was also completed with Japanese grant in May 1999.

The Japan Friendship Peace Bridge constructed over the Mahaweli river at Manampitiya. The bridge constructed at a cost Rs. 1.3 billion and partlyfunded by the government of Japan is 302 metres in length and 10.4 metres in width.

The Parliament Building Complex at Sri Jayawardenepura, Kotte was built in 1982

Under this phase a new runway was constructed parallel to the existing runway and the existing runway was converted to a parallel taxiway. The terminal was expanded, a maintenance complex and a navigational services complex with a new Air Traffic Control tower were commissioned and the fire services were upgraded. Parallel with these developments, the existing navigational aids were replaced and the visual landing aids were upgraded. The customer interface too was improved with duty free shopping, improved parking facilities and exit transport services.

Cargo handling facilities were also tremendously improved to support the rapidly developing freight forwarding and logistics industry. To face the global threats to civil aviation, state of the art passenger and baggage screening facilities were installed and a well-trained security service was deployed in operation.

The escalation of the separatist war in Sri Lanka exerted a heavy toll on the aviation industry. BIA was always a top target and in 2001 the separatist terrorists staged a devastating attack and crippled the operations of BIA destroying the fleet of the national carrier along with vital airport infrastructure.

The period that followed were shadowed by dark clouds of uncertainty. Amidst these, competition from the region was intense with many new international airports coming up.

Phase II Stage 1

To regain its status in the face of stiff competition, the first stage of Phase II of the BIA development plan was launched in 2003 with assistance from Japan through the Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) program.

This stage brought state of the art facilities of international status to the airport with a finger pier containing gates with boarding bridges and expansions to the terminal. It was the introduction of boarding bridges to Sri Lanka. The other additions were a Secondary Surveillance RADAR System, Terminal Information System and Meteorological Monitoring Systems. At the completion of this stage in 2005 the passenger handling capacity of BIA improved to six million movements per year.

In addition to the enhancement to the capacity and operational safety, operational efficiency was also improved on completion of Stage I. The turnaround time for all types of aircraft were improved. The BIA figures conform to industry standards.

Phase II Stage 2

In 2009, with the decisive defeat of LTTE terrorism President Mahinda Rajapaksa ushered in peace to the island. With the dawn of peace air travel to Sri Lanka surged upward and the capacity limits of BIA were soon exhausted. The increased tourist arrivals included those from the Far East. Several more airlines commenced operations to BIA. The annual passenger movements through BIA exceeded the designed figure of six million in successive years starting from 2011.

Under the second stage of the second phase of the BIA development project that will be launched today (7), the capacity is to be increased to 15 million passenger movements per annum. An additional finger pier will be constructed to the west of the existing one. A two tier passenger terminal with arrivals and departures physically separated as found in most modern airports will also be constructed. A rapid exit to the Colombo Katunayake Highway will be provided directly from the terminal. Stage 2 itself is to be implemented in two stages and the first stage is scheduled to be completed by early 2017.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is providing assistance for this stage with the loan agreement being signed directly with Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Ltd.

Once the Phase II Stage 2 of BIA development is complete it will stand as a monument of this lasting friendship.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will jointly launch the project at 1 pm today, thus marking another milestone in Sri Lanka's journey towards achieving hub status in aviation as envisioned in the Mahinda Chinthana - vision for the future, ushering in the golden era of the Sri Lankan aviation industry.