Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation Bimal Ratnayake joined the inspection of the Palali International Airport. The Minister of Fisheries, Aquatic and Marine Resources Ramalingam Chandrasekar and several members of Parliament also participated in the event, the Secretary of Defense Air Vice Marshal Sampath Thuiyakontha and the Chairman and staff of the Airport and Aviation Company.
At that time, Minister Bimal Ratnayake met and discussed with the staff of all the departments of the Palali Airport and inquired about the existing facilities and stated that the government will provide the necessary advice and support to develop and improve all the departments.
Speaking to the journalists present there, the Minister said the following.
“There is an increase in demand from both local and foreign tourists to use Palali Airport, which is already an international airport. Especially for tourists from Jaffna who currently arrive at Katunayake Airport, we hope to improve the domestic airport from there. For this, we hope to amend the Sri Lankan aviation law to suit domestic flights.
This airport should be developed internationally very soon. For this, two things need to be done. One, the runway should be extended. The other is to prepare a suitable terminal where safe travel can be carried out.
This development work should proceed with a feasibility study and new business plans. We hope to commence development work on this very soon.”