Airways' eyes on South Asia

By CHRIS DANIELS aviation writer

Airways Corporation, the state- owned enterprise that runs New Zealand air traffic control, is considering a bid to help run Sri Lanka's only international airport.

The Bloomberg news agency yesterday said Airways, in conjunction with US engineering giant Bechtel Group and Canada's Airport Development Corp, might bid to operate the airport in Colombo.

The deal would be worth up to US$1.5 billion, but the Airways portion of such a contract would be far smaller, as it would be involved only in providing air navigation services, not building or operating runways and terminals.

Airways is involved in many overseas contracts, but its best-known effort was a failed bid as part of a consortium with Lockheed Martin to buy and run Britain's air traffic control system in 1999.

Bloomberg said Sri Lanka needed an investor to expand the airport to meet expected annual growth of almost 10 per cent in passenger and cargo traffic in the next five years.

Tourism in the country was recovering after Government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels reached a cease-fire last year in the 20-year-old civil war that has left 65,000 people dead.

The winning bidder will build the new facility, run it for a specified number of years and then transfer control back to the Sri Lankan Government.