Tour News

Batticaloa Airport Opened For Civilians.

Batticaloa Airport

Recently the Batticaloa airport was renovated and was opened for civilian air traffic enabling direct air travel to the Eastern District.

Last year Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena did opened the renovated Batticaloa Airport on July 16 last year, an from then it was used only for military operations. The extended runway and passenger terminal at the Sri Lanka Air Force Station were opened then.

The first civilian aircraft landed at the airport recently with Transport and Civil Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, Deputy Minister Ashok Abeysinghe, Ministry Secretary G.S. Vithanage and several other politicians and government officials onboard.

As per the Minister, the airport was renovated at a cost of Rs.1400 million. Which got a Bitumen Layer covered runway with a length of 1066 meters and a width of 46 meters.

The opening of the renovated airport for civilian air traffic is expected to boost tourism to the East as tourists arriving from the Katunayake International Airport would be able to take a domestic flight to go to the East.

The airport is located 1.7 kilometers from the Batticaloa town in the Seththukuda area. The distance from Katunayake to the Batticaloa airport is 206 kilometres and from Ratmalana airport 222 kilometers.

Many local air service operators have already voiced interest in operating domestic flights to the Batticaloa Airport from Ratmalana. A private operator has already commenced two daily flights from Colombo to Batticaloa.

Mean while the government also plans to establish an aviation School within the premises of the airport and when fully operational. It can offer a large number of jobs for youth in the area.

Batticaloa Airport was first opened 60 years ago in November 1958 and was administered by Department of Civil Aviation initially. Army Engineers of the Sri Lanka Army had helped to make the airport operable and it was open to all members of the public.

Batti airport to open for commercial flights http://www.sundaytimes.lk/170514/business-times/batti-airport-to-open-for-commercial-flights-239822.html

A-380 Landed in Colombo Airport.

08/15/2017 1:07 PM

Emirates

Recently the Katunayake International airport runways was resurfaced and upgraded, and this has enabled larger aircrafts to land and take off easily to and from Colombo airport. Emirates is operating flights to Sri Lanka from 1986 onwards and nearly 34 flights arrives to Colombo in a week from Dubai..

As the Colombo airport is ready for this 500 passenger carrying A-380 flight, Emirates allowed a special one-off A380 flight operated as EK654 from Dubai to Sri Lanka. The flight was captioned by a Sri Lankan born pilot, who is working with Emirates.

Emirates Airline is currently operating A380 flights to nearly 48 destinations, almost a third of its global network. From 2008 onwards, Emirates has flown over 80 million passengers on its A380 fleet. Emirates is the world’s largest A380 operator with 96 aircraft already in its fleet and another 46 are waiting to be delivered.

Srilankan Direct Flight Colombo To Melbourne.

Srilankan airline is expected to start direct flights to Australia by October 29, 2017 onwards. There used to be a 4 flight schedule per week on this sector. A330-300 will be utilized for this service. Earlier in the 90's Srilankan was operating in this sector Srilankan Flight UL605 starts from Melbourne at 4.55pm and it is expected to reach Colombo airport by 10.15pm

Srilankan Flight UL604 departs from Colombo at 11.50pm will arrive Melbourne by 3.25pm. There are plans to introduce Airbus A330-200 jet with 18 lie-flat business class seats. Currently passengers to the Australia are using Singapore as their transit point for the journey and some time they have to spend nearly 4 - 5 hours to get their next connecting flight to fly to Sydney and Melbourne.

As of today 08/08/2017, Srilankan Airlines Offers Special Return Fares Colombo to Melbourne Flights from Rs 101,792* (Economy class)