Halldale Supports Aviation Voice’s First Forum in Colombo

Aviation Voice, the leading South Asian Aviation media organisation, launched its first Aviation Forum bringing together stakeholders from across the Sri Lankan commercial aviation community.

The meeting discussed the growth of aviation and tourism in Sri Lanka against the background of Sri Lankan Airlines planned doubling of their fleet to 50 aircraft and a doubling on inbound tourism to 5 million by 2030.

A doubling of capacity and the provision of the necessary airport upgrades, domestic air transport, aviation staff, road connections, hotels et al is no small task for any nation and this inaugural event will be the first of many such meetings as Sri Lanka, a nation of 22 million, with 16 airports, plans for the future.

Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority Chairman, Mr Buttika Hewawasam and the Director General of the CAA Mr Rahan Mario Waniappa were both in attendance and pledged maximum support, with the aid of the community to achieve their goals. 

Sessions covering the Global Aviation Landscape and Sri Lanka’s strategic position, Commercial Aviation and Airline Strategy, Tourism & Domestic Flight development plus Training for NGAP covered the full range of issues at stake and several barriers to growth will be quickly addressed as a result, with the DG, who attended the entire event, requesting ongoing support from stakeholders to help resolve larger issues.

Keynote addresses by industry icon ex Air Lanka Chief Pilot Captain Elmo Jayawardena , Mr Hewawasam, Sponsors Textron Aviation Ms Jodi Bevan and an international keynote provided by Halldale’s Andy Smith on the history and development of current aviation training, technology, techniques and the impact of conferences and exhibitions to the local economy and the development of a local aviation infrastructure with a close out by the DG rounded out a very full day.

Frequent comments regarding the lack of aircraft and delays to delivery were made illustrating the impact at a local level of this ongoing, hopefully soon to be resolved, issue.

All in all a very positive day for Sri Lanka, and it’s aviation community; all present commended the Aviation Voice team and its leader Mr Dev Kowsala Samarajeewa for this initiative.

Aviation Voice and Halldale have been working together since AV’s launch in 2015 and prior to that after Dev’s presentation at WATS 2012. 

Aside from his work as a global advocate for NGAP, Dev and his team has established an enviable audience across South Asia and has a strong AV team, editorial and online presence. He and his team also support Halldale’s WATS, EATS and APATS events as the event AV team. That relationship is sure to develop and deepen further as Halldale will now support ongoing Aviation Voice events in Colombo.