Sri Lanka’s main Airport congestion now under control: Minister

Jan 10, 2017 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Tourism Development Minister says the initial congestion caused as a result of the partial closure of the Katunayake International Airport beginning January 6 has now been eased.

The airport is closed from 8.30 am to 4.30 pm daily for a period of three months to carry out resurfacing of the main runway.

Tourism Development Ministry said the minister attended a special meeting with Emigration and Immigration Controller, AASL senior management, representatives of runway repair contractor, security heads and other top officials.

“We discussed the feasibility of introducing a separate business class check in area to ease main terminal passenger traffic,” Minister John Amaratunga said.

The Minister has been informed that the number of counters for check-ins, immigration and also customs has been increased corresponding to the increase in traffic.

“We are also exploring the possibility of enabling passenger check in at airline offices in Colombo.

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Minister said that the passenger flow was quite smooth and fast getting back to normal.

“It must be remembered that with 2 million tourist arrivals the airport is operating at 150% capacity,” he said.

“We are also looking at the possibility of reducing the 5 hour check in time.

I’m confident this can be reduced in the near future.

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Some of the other measures that have been introduced are queue management, entertainment for waiting passengers, additional seating arrangements, passenger facilitation services in the emigration area and free Wi-Fi for passengers.