Palaly Int’l Airport opens today, flights from Nov.1: Ministry

By Chaturanga Samarawickrama  

The Palaly Airport which had been upgraded to the Sri Lanka’s third international airport would be opened today, and flights will be operating from November 1, the Transport and Civil Aviation Ministry said. Spokesman of the Ministry said the construction of the project had already been completed.  
‘Alliance Air’ - a subsidiary of Air India will send its inaugural flight to the Jaffna International Airport this morning.  

After the inauguration of the Palaly International Airport, flight services between Jaffna and Chennai will be operated as it was the closest airport to South India, the official said.  
The construction project was carried out by both the Road Development Authority (RDA) and Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Ltd.  
President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Taranjit Singh Sandhu will take part at the inauguration, the Ministry official said. Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation had renamed the Palaly Airport as the Jaffna International Airport on October 3.  

The airport had been upgraded as a regional airport to handle international flights especially to South Indian cities under the first stage.  
The first 950 metres of the runway was repaved to accommodate Bombardier C100 planes with a seating capacity of 72 recently. Under the second stage, the existing runway will be further extended by another 1.5 metres. Under the third stage, the runway is to be expanded to 2.3 km and it will handle large passenger aircraft such as airbus AL- 320 and AL-321.  

The airport had been upgraded as a regional airport to handle international flights especially to South Indian cities under the first stage.