Sri Lanka To Increase Overflight Fees To Boost Annual Revenues

Sri Lanka is planning to revise its overflight fees for aircraft crossing the airspace of the country, which will boost annual revenues by about 50 percent to 10 million U.S. dollars, Civil Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, quoted in a local media report, said on Wednesday.

Presently, Sri Lanka charges a fee based on the weight for aircraft using its airspace, but under the revised system, both weight and distance will be used to charge fees, the minister said.

Director General of Civil Aviation H M C Nimalsiri said that over the last few years long distance flights from the Middle East to the Far East had expanded rapidly, increasing overflight over the island.

Sri Lanka currently has about 200 aircraft overflying the country without landing, Nimalsiri said.

The media report said that Colombo's main airport has about 185 flight movements a day.

(Xinhua)