Friday, 19 December 2014 01:09
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Airport and Aviation Services Chairman Col. Prasanna J. Wickramasuriya yesterday assured that he would allow no room whatsoever to stop operations of the BIA or MRIA, which are the gateways for tourists and investors to Sri Lanka.
He was commenting on the recent statement by common opposition presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena alleging that only those having his permission could use the airport to leave the country from 8 January midnight onwards.
Wickramasuriya opined that this type of irresponsible statement would be highly detrimental to the economic growth of the country with a specific adverse impact on the tourist industry in particular which is booming at present, especially at a time when Sri Lanka has put an ugly era of civil war behind it and is marching forward towards rapid development.
“Airports are considered to be the nerve centres of the country and therefore the damage and disrepute attempted through such arbitrary statements shall be totally condemned and dismissed before the rest of the world as they could get a wrong impression of Sri Lanka” he said.
