Prime Minister Abe will arrive in Sri Lanka on Sunday, September 7.

The Japanese PM and his delegation will be received at the Bandaranaike International Airport by Sri Lankan President and a special government delegation. Later he will participate in a ceremony to be held at the airport to inaugurate construction work on a new airport terminal.


Finally construction is going to take place!! Should be starting next week.

i think A320 HGR is too near to terminal.. as my point of view its not good..

http://www.airport.lk/bia_stageII/index.php

Wow, looks so much better!! Can't wait for it to be constructed

BIA - THE CONTINUOUSLY EXPANDING GATEWAY TO SRI LANKA

'Mahinda Chinthana - Vision for the Future' and the Aviation Hub

The ‘Mahinda Chinthana – Vision for the Future’, the manifesto of His Excellency the President Mahinda Rajapaksa put forward for the first time, the concept of hub status for Sri Lanka in five sectors, namely Energy, Commerce, Maritime, Aviation and Knowledge. Envisioning Sri Lanka as an aviation hub marked a turning point in the approach to the development of the national aviation industry. The Mahinda Chinthana envisions a development plan well integrated with other economic activities. It also aims at decentralizing the development activities across the island so that their benefits will flow down to all citizens. This includes the development of existing airports, the setting up of new airports, air – sea travel integration, making air travel more economical and the development of domestic aviation.



The hub status in aviation is based on the strategic location of Sri Lanka with respect to the International air routes. Sri Lanka is located midway between the aviation hubs in the Asia - Pacific region and the Middle East. It is also located close to the equator. This coupled with an exemplary safety record and state of the art air navigation services makes Sri Lanka a natural candidate for an aviation hub.

Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA)

The Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA),is the first International Airport in Sri Lanka and was the only International Airport until the commissioning of the Mattala – Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) in March 2013. It has been the main international gateway that linked Sri Lanka to the rest of the world, economically, socially and politically.



The construction of an airport in Ceylon that could cater to international air traffic was first considered in 1939. However the historic decision to convert the Royal Ceylon Air Force Base at “Katunayake” to an International Airport came only in 1958.This was the time the international aviation industry was experiencing its first post war boom. In 1964 work began to modernize the Katunayake airport to handle international traffic and by 1968 the airport had the capacity and all the basic facilities required at that time to promote and sustain international operations. Given the strategic location of Ceylon, the airport soon etched itself firmly on the world map and it was not uncommon to witness even heads of states in the east using the Katunayake airport regularly for transit. The national carrier “Air Ceylon” also shifted its home base from Ratmalana to Katunayake.



In 1976, Sri Lanka was making urgent preparations to host the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement which was scheduled to bring a large number of heads of states to Colombo. The airport was given a facelift to convey an image of national pride and also the technological upgrades to ensure the safety and reliability requirements of the arriving heads of states.

The liberalization of the economy and the boom in the tourism industry brought about a steady increase in the passenger movements and a need for streamlined, state of the art cargo operations. The national carrier re-launched under the name “Air Lanka” commenced operations in 1979 using BIA as its home base. To cater to the rapid increase in the operational demands in all fronts a master plan was drawn up for the development of BIA in aphased manner based on the forecasted growth of passenger and cargo movements.

1983 was an important turning point which saw the operation of BIA being entrusted to Airport & Aviation Services (AASL), a fully government owned company. Airport & Aviation Services took upon itself the task of implementing the phased development project for BIA as a matter of priority. Accordingly Phase I of the BIA development project was launched. Construction work commenced in 1984 and the bulk of the work was completed by 1988.Under this phase a new runway was constructed parallel to the existing runway and the existing runway was converted to a parallel taxiway. The terminal was expanded, a maintenance complex and a navigational services complex with a new Air Traffic Control tower were commissioned and the fire services were upgraded. Parallel with these developments, the existing navigational aids were replaced and the visual landing aids were upgraded.



The customer interface too was improved with duty free shopping, improved parking facilities and exit transport services. Cargo handling facilities were also tremendously improved to support the rapidly developing freight forwarding and logistics industry. To face the global threats to civil aviation, state of the art passenger and baggage screening facilities were installed and a well-trained security service was deployed in operation.
The escalation of the separatist war in Sri Lanka exerted a heavy toll on the aviation industry. BIA was always a top target and in 2001 the separatist terrorists staged a devastating attack and crippled the operations of BIA destroying the fleet of the national carrier along with vitalairport infrastructure. The period that followed were shadowed by dark clouds of uncertainty. Amidst these, competition from the region was intense with many new international airports coming up.

The Phase II Stage 1

To regain its status in the face of stiff competition, the first stage of Phase II of the BIA development plan was launchedin 2003 with assistance from Japan through the Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) programme. This stage brought state of the art facilities of international status to the airport with a finger pier containing gates with boarding bridges and expansions to the terminal. It was the introduction of boarding bridges to Sri Lanka. The other additions were aSecondary Surveillance RADAR System, Terminal Information System and Meteorological Monitoring Systems. At the completion of this stagein 2005 the passenger handling capacity of BIA improved to 6 million movements per year.



In addition to the enhancement to the capacity and operational safety, operational efficiency was also improved on completion of Stage I. The turnaround time for all types of aircraft were improved. The BIA figures conform to industry standards.

The Phase II Stage 2

In 2009, the separatist war ended with the decisive defeat of terrorism and His Excellency the President Mahinda Rajapaksa ushered in peace to the island. With the dawn of peace air travel to Sri Lanka surgedupward and the capacity limits of BIA were soon exhausted. The increased tourist arrivals included those from the Far East. Several more airlines commenced operations to BIA. The annual passenger movements through BIA exceeded the designed figure of 6 million in successive years starting from 2011.



Under the second stage of the second phase of the BIA development project that will be launched on 7th September 2014, the capacity is to be increased to 15 million passenger movements per annum. An additional finger pier will be constructed to the west of the existing one.

A two tier passenger terminal with arrivals and departures physically separated as found in most modern airports will also be constructed. A rapid exit to the Colombo Katunayake Highway will be provided directly from the terminal. Stage 2 itself is to be implemented in two stages and the first stage is scheduled to be completed by early 2017.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is providing assistance for this stage with the loan agreement being signed directly with Airport & Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Ltd.The continued assistance from Japan is indicative of the strong bilateral relations that exist between Sri Lanka and Japan. Japan has been a major contributor in the national development of Sri Lanka for which the entire nation is grateful. The strong bonds dating back to the period of Japan’s reawakening after the 2nd world war are cherished by both countries. Once the Phase II Stage 2 of BIA development is complete it will stand as a monument of this lasting friendship.

His Excellency the President Mahinda Rajapaksa and, Prime Minster of Japan His Excellency Shinzō Abe will jointly launch the project at 1 p.m. on 7th September 2014 thus marking another milestone in Sri Lanka’s journey towards achieving hub status in aviation as envisioned in the Mahinda Chinthana – vision for the future, ushering in the golden era of the Sri Lankan aviation industry.

source : airport.lk

I agree this new design is way better than the previous one. I'am glad they didn't proceed with a previous out-of-date design. CMB has to be developed to compete with local airports like BLR, MAA etc..

New Design


Previous design

This is what should have been done along time ago instead of putting so much effort into HRI. With the increased flight operations in and out CMB and future demand this is a good move.

But Sri Lanka needs Second International Airport to handle the large aircraft. Now HRI should be developing the Aircraft-engineering facilities instead of developing the passenger terminals. It's nice to see 24 gates and 3 terminals planned for CMB.

Will the current terminal be renovated too???.....caz itll look very odd to see an outdated terminal among two ultramodern terminals

President Welcomes Japanese PM, Unveils Phase 2 of BIA Development Project





BIA – The continuously expanding gateway to Sri Lanka

YouTube video of the new airport. It looks so much better than the original design and puts us on par with other Asian countries.

love to see this dream come true. ! Such a nice plan. Worth a lot more than HRI

I think that was the idea from the beginning. When compared to this plan for CMB, the now completed HRI clearly looks like a second tier airport. The fact that HRI was completed first (for political reasons or to encourage the development of logistics hub there) while CMB was in its current dilapidated state gave the wrong impression that HRI was being promoted ahead of CMB.

This new plan looks quite modern and is at par with some of the best airports in the South Asian region.

I think they will renovate the current terminal once the construction work of Terminal 2 completed. Any idea where did they moved the aviation spectators gallery where that AN32 was stored ? Will the construction work affect the current flights operating out of Colombo ?

A two tier passenger terminal with arrivals and departures physically separated as found in most modern airports will also be constructed. A rapid exit to the Colombo Katunayake Highway will be provided directly from the terminal. Stage 2 itself is to be implemented in two stages and the first stage is scheduled to be completed by early 2017.

The BIA expansion looks slick! I think they will definitely integrate the existing terminal.

Just wondering what the two stages are and whether this includes a new runway because the video didn't have one.