The Role of Domestic Aviation in Sri Lankan Tourism

This is a report by the Organization of Professional Associations. Resource personnel on Panel were Capt. Amal Wahid, General Manager, Air Senok/Senok Aviation (Pvt) Ltd., Capt. Lasantha Dahanayake, Director Flight Operations, Saffron Aviation (Pvt) Ltd, parent company of Cinnamon Air Asitha Ranaweera, Accountable Manager and Deputy Chief Executive FITS (Pvt) Ltd (Friends In The Sky), Kasun Abeynayaka, Senior Lecturer/Assistant Director Industry Engagement, Events, Travel and Tourism, William Angliss Institute@SLIIT. Moderator was Capt. G.A. Fernando, Member, Executive Council of Organisation of Professional Associations (OPA) & Member, Association of Airline Pilots

Resource personnel on Panel:

1.     Capt. Amal Wahid, General Manager, Air Senok/Senok Aviation (Pvt) Ltd

2.     Capt. Lasantha Dahanayake, Director Flight Operations, Saffron Aviation (Pvt) Ltd, parent company of Cinnamon Air

3.      Asitha Ranaweera, Accountable Manager and Deputy Chief Executive FITS (Pvt) Ltd (Friends In The Sky)

4.    Kasun Abeynayaka, Senior Lecturer/Assistant Director Industry Engagement, Events, Travel and Tourism, William Angliss Institute @ SLIIT

Moderator:

Capt. G.A. Fernando, Member, Executive Council of Organisation of Professional Associations (OPA) & Member, Association of Airline Pilots

(Continued from yesterday (09)

From a Sri Lankan tourism point of view, the years between 2010 and 2020 could be called the ‘Golden Era’. In the year 2018 there were 2.3 million foreign tourists visiting Sri Lanka. In fact, Sri Lankan Tourism was the 3rd largest contributor to the national economy. Our Tourism Industry is now competing with Singapore and Maldives.

Sri Lanka now has five international airports. However, less than 10% of them have been utilised by tourists using domestic air transportation. In contrast, Maldives started seaplane operations in 1990 and is now flourishing with participation of three operators, with access to all tourist resorts.

‘Luxury tourism’ has to be looked at in terms of the five C’s: Cuisine, Culture, Community, Content and Customisation. Domestic aviation will fall into the category defining Content, which is currently lacking. Furthermore a five-year concept (the five A’s) is being considered for tourism in Sri Lanka, namely: Accessibility, Amenities, Attractively, Accommodation and Authenticity. Domestic airlines should facilitate Accessibility. The industrial leader in domestic aviation is Cinnamon Air, catering to a niche market rather than the mass market.

Last month there were 33,000 tourists and up to 20th June there were 61,000, led mainly by travellers from India. This was very encouraging.

The Challenges

In 2010 an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) audit was imminent. Without much thought given to the applicability to domestic aviation, the Aviation Act Number 14 of 2010 was hastily introduced. This resulted in over-regulation of simple operations that increased the fixed costs due to employment of number of additional post-holders, not unlike practice in a complex operation. That situation exists because there are no professionally qualified personnel to handle domestic aviation at CAASL.

The domestic aircraft are kept grounded for long periods because of no Aircraft on Ground (AOG) process to import spare parts as soon as possible. Domestic security procedures are not streamlined and coordinated with the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB), Airport and Aviation Services Sri Lanka (AASL), and Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF). After the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks of 2019, additional security measures such as physical ‘frisking’ have been introduced, to the displeasure and annoyance of tourists.

Cessna 208 Caravan amphibian seaplane of Cinnamon Air, 4R-CAF

In addition all, domestic flight movements are restricted by the SLAF. Approvals are required from far too many organisations. It was suggested that there should only be a maximum of two organisations facilitating the operations, with all approvals addressed via a single regulatory body.

Additionally, today there is no dedicated domestic terminal for operators at Colombo-BIA, a situation that creates confusion for passengers. The cost of establishing Cinnamon Air’s own terminal at BIA will undoubtedly be passed on to the company’s passengers, driving ticket prices higher.

Navigation aids at Ratmalana International Airport (RIA) are not sufficient. After the crash in 2015 of a SLAF Antonov An-32 transport due to bad visibility at Hokandara which is on the final approach to RIA, the SLAF requested CAASL to provide a usable navigational radio aid, but to no avail yet.

In the Sri Lanka Civil Aviation Policy 2017 there is a clause which authorises the use of ‘Cabotage’ rights. Wikipedia defines cabotage rights as “the right of a company from one country to trade in another country. In aviation, it is the right to operate within the domestic borders of another country.”

Most countries do not permit aviation cabotage, and there are strict sanctions against it, for reasons of economic protectionism, national security, or public safety. It was therefore declared that cabotage rights should be handled with grave concern, and should be discussed further at a higher levels.

There was a recent development in FitsAir (Friends in the Sky) when the company lost 50% of its employee cadre (pilots, engineers, mechanics, flight dispatchers and cabin crew), as many migrated to greener pastures. In the near future, to prevent operations coming to an almost standstill FitsAir may have to hire expatriates to replace the lost knowledge and experience which cannot be rebuilt overnight.

With reference to spares, FitsAir ran an ATR 72 operation in Indonesia. In contrast to Sri Lankan operations, they had only a minimum stock of spares on the rack. The other spares were ordered as and when required, with Indonesian Customs clearing and delivering them in a timely manner, usually within 24 hours. That was the guarantee in place. In a comparative Sri Lankan scenario, it would have taken many months to obtain the same spare parts, resulting in the aircraft remaining grounded in the interim while losing money for its owner/operator.

At present, a tourist wishing to transfer from an international flight to a domestic flight or vice versa at BIA, is not facilitated with a seamless, coordinated process by Customs, Immigration, Quarantine (CIQ), and the Airport and Aviation Security (AASL) Security. Instead, he/she must walk a long way in the process that is unacceptable, especially to ‘high end’ tourists. There is no satisfactory place in the BIA terminal for a tourist to wait. In short there seems to be a major communication problem, for which tourists should not be penalised. Domestic aviation is an expensive yet important exercise in the interest of an attractive and hassle-free tourist experience. Yet domestic airline brand-names and the availability of those airlines’ services within Sri Lanka are not mentioned in websites on Sri Lankan tourism, although other stake-holders are acknowledged.

It was felt that tourism marketing was carried out haphazardly, and selling was unplanned. For example, Singapore has 49,000 MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conference and Exhibition) tourism venues, while Sri Lanka sadly has fewer than ten. Sri Lanka needs to actively capture that market, but so far has done nothing of the sort. Every organisation is living in its own bubble and not working as a team.

 The wedding market, catering especially to visitors from the Indian subcontinent, is another potentially high foreign exchange earner in which domestic aviation can actively participate.

Overall, there is a lack of awareness by all concerned, including the regulator, who should come at least halfway out of his corner.

What can be done about it?

ATR 72-200 of FitsAir, 4R-EXN

There was also a suggestion that domestic aviation should come under the umbrella of the Tourism Development Authority. At the moment the rapport maintained with the Tourism Authority is not encouraging.

It was suggested that, as in India, a Viability Fund and Connectivity Fund (to safeguard operator and customer alike) should be established. It was declared as doable and a good way of jump-starting the domestic aviation industry.

Possible Solutions as contained in the Executive Summary

·        Third level airlines could be established to train and develop personnel for the international, regional and domestic aviation industries.

·        Air travel facilities available should be publicised abroad through our embassies/high commissions.

·        Domestic aviation must be subsidised by the government, perhaps using the Tourism Development Fund. This Tourism Development Levy (TDL) should include a component for aviation or domestic aviation strategies, which is a lengthy process which takes time to begin functioning.

·        16 domestic airports available.

·        CAASL must liberalise and not use international standards (SARP’s) rigidly on domestic services (alternative means of compliance could achieve equal or better safety standards).

·        The Government must not encourage subsidised airlines to distort the fair prices of domestic air travel. For instance the SLAF-operated Helitours model.

·        Encourage private investment.

·        Realistic CAASL security oversight (to facilitate and not to obstruct).

·        Always ‘Safety First’.

·        Available national industrial experts to be utilised.

·        Healthy competition to be established in a level playing field.

·        Domestic air service orientated and fully integrated with road and rail as suggested by the Aviation Policy of 2017.

Note:

A Viability Fund to safeguard the operator assuming that the flight was operating full every time all the time. For example, if an eight-seat aircraft was flying with only four passengers, then the other four seats would be subsidised by the fund.

A Connectivity Fund to cap the ticket fare to a more affordable value to popularise the flight.

Both funds to operate for a limited time, e.g. three or five years.

Finally, it was suggested that to move forward, domestic aviation should work closely with SLAITO (Sri Lanka Association for Inbound Tourist Operators) which has a seat in almost all the Tourist Development Forums.