Monday, 27 October 2014 00:38
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The 2015 Budget presented on Friday has given a big boost to revamp the country’s airports by Rs. 10 billion in the next three years.
President and Finance Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa during the 2015 Budget presentation proposed to allocate Rs. 10 billion over 2015-17 to rehabilitate the national airports at Ratmalana, Trincomalee, Anuradhapura, Palali, Batticaloa and set up new airports at Kandy and Nuwara Eliya to promote domestic travel and tourism and to ease traffic congestion.
The aviation sector too got a big fillip from the 2015 Budget. For the final phase of capitalisation of the two airlines SriLankan and Mihin, the Government has allocated $ 150 million out of the original plan of $ 500 million announced two years ago.
“In terms of the strength of SriLankan and Mihin Lanka airlines which are going through capitalisation and restructuring, we now operate from our two International Airports 25-fleet air services to 90 destinations in 44 countries, linking them direct to Sri Lanka,” President said.
He also said the Airports Authority now manages two international airports “making a regional attraction and profits”.
