The airline sector in the Asia-Pacific region is booming and rapidly becoming a cornerstone of global air travel. “Though Europe and North America once dominated the aviation landscape, the Asia-Pacific is on the verge of reshaping global air travel,” the Head of Commercial of SriLankan Airlines Dimuthu Tennakoon asserted, during a recent LMDtv interview.

He explained that with giants such as India (which could become the third largest passenger market by 2027) and China, there are many opportunities for aviation players in the region.

Sri Lanka’s proximity to India opens many opportunities, he noted: “We consider India (particularly South India) to be our extended home market, which we’ve been capitalising on. And our long-term plan is to increase flights and frequencies.”

The aviation sector has overcome many challenges from the nonavailability of jet fuel to economic barriers that saw many airlines not visiting our shores. Yet today, the country is seeing promising developments including a massive increase in passenger arrivals and departures, more than 30 airlines calling on the island, and increased airline services and scheduled flights.

Tennakoon said: “Sri Lanka’s numbers are booming. In 2024, we had about two million tourists and this year we’re expecting three million.”

“We also have liberal air services agreements with countries and as such, plenty of airlines are travelling to Sri Lanka and increasing traffic. It’s possible that the 30 airlines currently landing here will increase to 40 or 45 in a couple of years and we should be ready for them,” he added.

As Tennakoon said, infrastructure development is key and it’s good that the government is investing in a new terminal: “With the existing operation, we can handle about six million passengers at the airport; and with the new terminal, this will go up to around 15 million.”

Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is on an upward trajectory, and this highlights the need to streamline and improve domestic aviation.

He continued: “As most tourists who visit Sri Lanka stay only for six or seven days, they wouldn’t want to be on the road for six or seven hours. Therefore, we need [to focus on] infrastructure development.”

“For instance, the Jaffna airport has a couple of airlines operating from India, we have the Ratmalana airport and Batticaloa is also getting ready. But we can’t cater to all types of aircraft because of runway restrictions,” he elaborated.

There are other concerns such as affordability that need to be addressed in terms of domestic travel.

Tennakoon explained: “Since domestic travel has a VAT component, if you purchase a ticket from here to Jaffna, you have to pay back 18 percent. Yet, international travel has a fixed amount. So if visitors are travelling from Canada to Jaffna, they will have to pay a fixed amount for the first leg from Canada to Colombo and then a percentage from Colombo to Jaffna. And our inability to issue a through ticket is discouraging travellers.”

In addition to increasing passenger numbers, Sri Lanka is also seeing positive cargo movements in and out of the country.

He noted that “cargo volumes were good even during the pandemic and then things slowed down. But business is picking up again due to rising e-commerce movements. We have a lot of demand for air freight and many forums are saying that Sri Lanka will be a cargo hub with a good future.”

“I’m confident that we will have a very good year in terms of inbound tourism,” he asserted, noting also that “we can see winter bookings already beginning while the summer bookings are also looking good. And with a lot of airlines flying into and out of Sri Lanka, there’s a lot of potential for outbound travel too.”

Things are falling into place and looking good for Sri Lanka, and the need to improve capacity and infrastructure to capitalise on the growth potential has never been more crucial.