SRI LANKA AVIATION EXPERT SLAMS GOVT INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT PLAN.

COLOMBO, Sept 1 Asia Pulse - Sri Lanka risks losing a race with south Indian airports to become an aviation hub in south Asia owing to misguided plans by politicians to build a second international airport, an aviation expert has warned.

Its sole international airport at Katunayake, north of Colombo, remains too short and narrow for modern long-haul commercial jets, said Dayanthe Athulathmudali, Director, Dubai World Central, a Dubai government enterprise building a big new airport at Jebalali.

The situation is so bad that cargo from the national carrier, Sri Lankan Airlines, has to be unloaded and loaded onto to competitors' aircraft as the runway is too short to support its biggest aircraft at full load, he noted.

Instead of building a second international airport in the south, which could end up a 'white elephant' as international airlines have not asked for it, the best solution is to have the political will to acquire land near the existing airport for another runway.

"I have a request to all of you!" Athulathmudali, a former director at Sri Lanka Airports and Aviation Services, which operates the island's airports, told a seminar on transport infrastructure organised by the Chamber of Construction Industry.

"Contact your favourite politician and convince him that Sri Lankas priority should be to become the South Asian `Hub."

As this requires that the largest aircraft should be able to land, a runway 4,000 metres long and 60 metres wide to accommodate the Airbus A380, the largest commercial aircraft flying, has to be constructed.