Peace Air, one of the three bidders for the SriLankan Airlines deal has ordered for six A380 aircraft from another regional airline.
These would be branded and run under the Peace Air .
All the operations would be from the Mattala International Airport Hambantota.
According to Gamini Wethasinghe Managing Director of the company, the first two aircraft would arrive end of July. “We hope to utilize these two aircraft for Muslim religious travel to Mecca.”
Wethasinghe said that passengers would be fed to the airline from two destinations in the Far East allowing the airline to operate on a 80% load factor.
He said that by 2018 August two more aircraft would be fed to their operations and the last two would be joining the fleet by mid-2019. “In addition we will also purchase two 175 seat aircraft by August this year to fly to SAARC destinations to feed in passengers to the A380’s which would each have around 575 seat capacity.
The Managing Director said that the Peace Air operated a domestic airline service in Sri Lanka in the early 1980’s and claimed that their international operations did not take off the ground since they were blocked by the then international player who was running the national carrier. “I must also say that they had the political patronage to support it. I am now in the process of reactivating this license,” he said.
Wethasinghe said that they would be buying the six A380 aircraft on a ‘Lock Stock and Barrel’ agreement where the owners of the airline under take to take care of the mechanical side. “We will also have local and foreign technicians in Mattala firstly to train local engineers in A380 operations and to also carry daily checks. (A checks)
“We expect to offer over 1,200 employment form this venture by the end of 2017 and it will also help to generate revenue to Mattala airport,” he said. Wethasinghe said that they were also been backed up by Lufthansa.
Peace Air, one of the three bidders for the SriLankan Airlines with an offer of USD 5.5 billion has also offered to take control of Mattala for US$ 2.2 billion. “We have this money and have conformed to the National Saving Bank that it’s available through a SFIFT from an international bank,” Wethasinghe added.
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