Dr Chula N A Rajapakse MNZM CONSULTANT RHEUMATOLOGIST Ropata Village Medical Centre Lower Hutt NZ

The Chairman,

Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority.

Dear Sir

Exploiting the Potential of Several  Daily  A 380 Emirates Flights From Australia To Dubai Flying Over Mattala Airport Paying  For emergency Landing Rights at Mattala.

I right following the viewing of  an inspiring program on Ada Derana Big Focus a few days ago, where in you and your  colleague laid out your plans and vision for return of tourists in increasing numbers in the immediate and medium turn. I commend you on your vision and efforts.

As a resident of NZ for over three decades, I have  on many  occasions travelled to Europe , using one of the three nightly A380  Emirates flights from , Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and one directly from Auckland. During these  flights I have always wondered about the potential for one of these planes dropping off tourists from ‘down under’ at Mattala, which is in their flight path and has a runway long enough to land an A 380 & to which airport they pay $2000/= per flight for emergency landing rights.    

In fact, I have been on flights  where the captain has pointed out the Mattala Airport, when it was newly opened , which is right under it’s flight path   as a potential emergency stop over .I have spoken to the crew about the potential of a drop off stop at Mattala , to which they have had a positive response.

One of the biggest impediments to travel to SL from down under to SL is, access. The daily flight of the Sri Lankan from Melbourne , and now the one from Sydney too has been a great boon for this access. These flight also can be promoted as the cheapest access to London and Europe , using Sri Lankan connections to these destinations , with a 12 hour stop over in Colombo, for which Sri Lankan provides hotel accommodation. too That would be another way to attract tourists en route to Europe.

I urge you to include these two suggestions in your  commendable deliberations to increase tourists arrivals to Sri Lanka, for which the potential is huge.

Thank You

Yours truly,  

Dr Chula N A Rajapakse MNZM

FRCP FRACP

CONSULTANT RHEUMATOLOGIST