JAFFNA, October 2019: An Alliance Air flight from Chennai in southern India landed at the Palaly airfield renamed as the Jaffna International Airport on October 17, marking the opening of the third international airport in Sri Lanka.
Equipped with a 2.3-km runway, Sri Lanka’s third international airport was declared open by President Maithripala Sirisena after the landing of the flight operated by Alliance Air, a fully-owned subsidiary of Air India. The inaugural flight to Jaffna by Alliance Air, which operates the regional network for Air India using turboprop aircraft, also launched the airline’s international service.
The inauguration ceremony was also attended by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Arjuna Ranatunga, Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation and India’s high commissioner to Sri Lanka, Taranjit Sandhu. The Jaffna International airport was constructed at a cost of Rs 2.25bn with Rs 300 million of the total investment being financed by the Indian government.
Jaffna International Airport, which is located in the town of Palaly in Jaffna district 16 km north of the city of Jaffna, was originally built by the Royal Air Force during World War II. Air services between Jaffna and Tamil Nadu, which were in full swing till the late-1970s, were suspended just before the Sri Lankan conflict. The Palaly airfield was later designated as a military facility that served the Sri Lankan Air Force during the three decade-long war.
Prior to the launch of international flights from Jaffna, people from the northern city had to travel a distance of 370 km to Colombo by road or train, a journey of seven to eight hours, and then take a flight to Tamil Nadu from the main Bandaranaike International Airport.
Speaking on the occasion, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, said: “It is quite an achievement of the government to develop the Palaly airport as an international airport not in years but in a few months after the proposal was made to the cabinet in 2018 April and work started in May 2019. We have been able to complete the job in six months.”
In a lighter vein Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said that minister Arjuna Ranatunga has now earned two world records. One is the 1996 World Cup title, and the other is the opening of an airport in such a short period.
India’s high commissioner to Sri Lanka, Taranjit Sandhu in his speech said that the inaugural flight was “yet another example of India’s commitment to continue with people-oriented development projects in Sri Lanka.”
Mattala International Airport in Hambantota is the island’s second international airport and the Sri Lankan government has already declared Batticaloa airport on the east coast as its fourth international airport, and is likely to be opened for flights from India soon. Direct flights from India to Jaffna and Batticaloa is expected to boost tourism and trade in these two areas.
Initially Jaffna will receive flights from Chennai, Trichy and Kochi. Later, the governments of both countries plan to extend it to other major cities in India, such as Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi. Sri Lanka also plans to operate flights from Jaffna to the neighbouring archipelago of the Maldives.
