‘Spark Air’ plans 2021 launch in Sri Lanka

By Hiran H.Senewiratne 

A private sector consortium of local and foreign investors will be launching a new airline in Sri Lanka named ‘Spark Air’, with plans to begin their flights in February 2021 with a pair of Airbus A330.

“We have already inked agreements to acquire two A 330 aircraft for the operation which is expected to take wings in early February 2021 after receiving IATA approval. Initially, we will be handling cargo,” Head of Safety Management System, Capt. Uditha Danwatte said.

Spark Air will have its base-hub in Mattala Rajapaksa Airport and have already taken space for two hangers and for a cargo storage facility. “We plan to start recruitment by December and will be opening our sales office in Colombo in January.” he said.

Outlining their plans he said that they would be initially launching flights to Asia and European destinations mainly targeting cargo since passenger operations are too early to commence due to the COVID pandemic.

As of now the airline has identified 15 international destinations to be included on our radar which include Los Angeles. When the pandemic settles, we plan to operate as a full service airline mainly targeting new destinations that are currently not serviced from Colombo.” he Danwatte said.

He said that the Management has plans to take the two aircraft on dry lease since over 350 pilots and thousands of experienced airline crew are grounded due to COVID. “Similarly the management thought that this is also the best time to go in for airline leases since the conditions are very favorable.” he added.

He is a former pilot of the Sri Lanka Air Force with many bravery medals to his credit who has also served SriLankan and Mihin Lanka,

Danwatte together with his son, created aviation history by flying an Air Asia flight to Sri Lanka becoming the only father and son pilot combination to fly a foreign flag carrier to Colombo and back to Kuala Lumpur.

Their company plans to establish a managing, repairing and overhauling aircraft service centre which is known as MRO project in Sri Lanka , which could provide more than 15,000 jobs for Sri Lankans with the right skill set. At present MRO services are not done in India and we could attract other airlines to offer such services, Danwatte said.