Air ticket prices reduced by 20% after appreciation of the rupee: Minister

Claiming that airline agencies in Sri Lanka have reduced prices of air tickets by 20 percent in proportion to the decrease in the price of the US Dollar, Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation,  Nimal Siripala de Silva said that they agreed to  further reduce the prices of air tickets in the future.

The Minister said this at a special discussion with the representatives of the airline agencies operating from Sri Lanka.

At the discussions, it was revealed that with the gradual decrease of current economic crisis in the country, more favorable  tendencies  prevailed for an influx of a large number of tourists to Sri Lanka. In the coming days, about 07 new passenger airlines are scheduled to call the island.

The airline representatives pointed out that already a traffic jam is experienced at the Baindaranike International Airport in Katunayake due to delay in ground handling operations. 

The Minister said it was decided to transfer the ground-handling operations from Sri Lankan Airlines to Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) (Private) Limited after a lengthy  discussion. (Ajith Siriwardana)