Sri Lanka: Colombo airport closure to hit national airline

Sri Lanka's main international airport will be closed during daytime for three months during the peak tourist season early next year for badly needed maintenance on its only runway, sparking fears of a financial setback for the tourism industry and SriLankan Airlines, the national carrier. From Jan. 6 to April 5 next year, Bandaranaike International Airport will be closed from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day. It will be open outside those hours, but airlines will have to reschedule, reroute or cancel many daylight flights. The closure will cost SriLankan Airlines $47m in lost earnings and force the cancellation of roughly 600 flights to key destinations such as Singapore, Chennai, Trichy, Male, Cochin and Bangalore. BIA operates 150 to 185 flights a day, about 30% of which will be affected by the closure. SriLankan Airlines CEO Suren Ratwatte said: "Our request to carry out the renovations during the night was turned down, despite other airlines managing to convince their (airport) authorities to shift renovations to the daytime ... The decision to shut down the airport during the day is a huge setback for us." <br/>