More PHIs to be deployed at BIA to ease passenger congestion

• To deploy 30 new PHIs and open more windows to process passengers’ health declaration 
• Since relaxation of health guidelines BIA daily handles about 12,000 passengers on average 

The Tourism Ministry announced yesterday that added measures would be taken to ease passenger congestion at Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), Katunayaka, by deploying more public health inspectors (PHIs), an effort towards minimising the likelihood of a COVID-19 spread.

A discussion led by Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga was held with Health Services Director General Asela Gunawardena, Immigration and Emigration Controller, Customs officials and Airport and Aviation Company Chairman Retired Major General G.A. Chandrasiri on Wednesday, to explore options to reduce the time taken to issue the health clearance.

The decision was made after several complaints were received from passengers on the delays experienced in obtaining health clearance.

To iron out the issues, measures will be taken to deploy 30 new PHIs and also open more windows to process the health declaration of the passengers, Ranatunga said.

In a statement to the media, he shared that few separate windows will also be added for passengers to gain clarity on the health guidelines in the country.

At present, BIA authorities have made available an online system for passengers to submit their health deceleration. However, the passengers continue to experience delays in the reviewing process.

Delays are also experienced at the health-check-up counters, where at some instances, the passengers had to wait for over two hours for clearance.

Ranatunga affirmed measures would be taken to streamline processes and better handle the passenger traffic at BIA. According to Ranatunga, since the relaxation of health guidelines, BIA handles about 12,000 passengers on average on a daily basis. Since the opening of the airport in January, BIA has handled about 746,085 passengers, where 409,496 were arrivals and 336,589 were departures.

BIA has a capacity of handling six million passengers annually, although prior to the COVID-19 outbreak the annual passenger traffic was above 10 million.