The Hon. Anura Karunathilaka - Minister of Ports and Civil Aviation
The Minister answered a question on airline operations, passenger capacity and airport charges, stating that 29 scheduled airlines, including SriLankan Airlines and FitsAir, are approved for the winter 2025/2026 season with weekly one-way seat capacity of about 115,000 to 203,000. He said several Middle Eastern carriers and local airlines had reduced or cancelled frequencies due to the regional situation, while Aeroflot, Edelweiss and SalamAir had added flights, and tabled annexes with detailed seat, traffic, levy arrears and airport capacity data. He also set out current embarkation levy rates by airport, noting that the levy is included in ticket prices, collected by the Civil Aviation Authority from airlines and remitted to the Treasury twice weekly.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, the answer to the Hon. Ravi Karunanayake is as follows:
¶ 02 1. A total of 29 scheduled airlines are operating from Sri Lanka, including two Sri Lankan carriers—SriLankan Airlines and FitsAir—approved for the winter 2025/2026 season. Based on approved aircraft capacities, weekly one-way seat availability ranges from approximately 115,000 to 203,000 seats.
¶ 03 Given the prevailing situation in the Middle East, several airlines—Qatar Airways, Emirates, Air Arabia, Etihad Airways, Air Arabia Abu Dhabi, flydubai, Kuwait Airways, Jazeera Airways, SriLankan Airlines and FitsAir—have either cancelled or reduced frequencies. Meanwhile, Aeroflot, Edelweiss and SalamAir have introduced additional flights to meet demand. Minimum/maximum weekly seats and annual one-way seat capacities by airline are provided in Annex 01 (tabled).
¶ 04 2. Embarkation levy per departing passenger: - Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB): USD 60 (from 01.02.2020) - Jaffna International Airport (JAF): USD 60 (from 01.02.2026) - Colombo International Airport, Ratmalana (RML): USD 30 (from 2025 to date) - Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (HRI): Free until three years from commencement of international airline operations or until 26 June 2027, whichever comes first - Batticaloa Airport (BTC): USD 60 (from 01.02.2020)
¶ 05 The levy is included in the ticket price. It is collected by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) from airlines and transferred to the Treasury twice a week.
¶ 06 3. Departures and arrivals in 2023–2025 by airport are provided in Annex 02 (tabled).
¶ 07 4. Total embarkation levy due to Government from passengers for 2023, 2024 and 2025 is given in Annex 02 (tabled).
¶ 08 5. Details of outstanding embarkation levy by airline, amounts due as of the latest date, resultant losses due to delay, and actions taken are provided in Annex 02 (tabled).
¶ 09 6–9. Details on the number of international and domestic airports, each airport’s annual passenger handling capacity and utilization, whether under- or over-utilized, ongoing and planned development projects (including Terminal 2 and regional upgrades), constraints on tourism growth, and the incremental passenger capacity upon completion are provided in the annexes tabled.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Thursday, 19 March 2026 ·No. 23381 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Anura Karunathilaka - Minister of Ports and Civil Aviation. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 19 March 2026. No. 23381. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/30135