Cargo bright spot
Cargo is one bright spot for SriLankan, with its most recent statistics available for June this year, showing total cargo volumes handled by the carrier totally 21,129 tonnes substantially up from 17,433 handled in the same month a year earlier. SriLankan handled just over 194,000 tonnes of cargo for the full year 2015. Sri Lanka’s exporters, however, are bracing for the carrier’s withdrawal from Paris and Frankfurt by year-end as the carrier shifts to codeshare arrangements with Etihad and Qatar. SriLankan Airlines also benefits from being the monopoly cargo handler at Bandaranaike International Airport Katunayake, where SriLankan Cargo – the carrier’s freight handling arm – operates a new fully equipped Cargo Terminal. In March this year the terminal recorded record volumes, exceeding its design capacity of 20,833 tonnes per month. The terminal handled 21,743 tonnes in March up from 20,040 tonnes in March 2015. “Our forecast indicates that 2016 will be another record setting year for SriLankan Cargo,” said Chamara Ranasinghe, head of Cargo at SriLankan Airlines. “Our Cargo centre has already handled 56,780 tonnes during the first three months of this year, which is the highest total that we have seen during the January to March period during any year, surpassing the 52,169 tonnes in the comparable period last year.”