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Expo Aviation (Pvt) Ltd, a member of the Expolanka Group of Companies and a 100% Sri Lankan owned BOI company will start operating flights to Jaffna shortly.

The company has brought an IL-18 passenger aircraft to be for Jaffna operations.

With a capacity of 100 passengers per flight, the company plans to operate two flights daily one in the morning and the second in the afternoon. "It will be a two-class operation with eight business class seats and 92 economy class seats," the company's Chief Executive Officer, Sabri Marikar said. At present, the company is in the final stage of certification for passenger operations.

He said cabin crew with local and international experience have already been recruited to work on the flights and they have been given special training on caring for children and elderly passengers. Light refreshments will also be served on the 50-minute flight.

"We opted for for an IL-18 aircraft for Jaffna operations since we have plenty of experience with this particular aircraft, having operated a similar one for over two years on international routes," Mr. Marikar said.

"The experience gained in maintaining and operating a similar aorcraft for our cargo operations will enable us to conduct safe passenger operations," he said.

Expo Aviation at present operates a leased IL-18 aircraft and a company owned AN-12 aircraft on international cargo operations to the Far East, Middle East and regional destinations such as Male' and Gan in the Maldives, Trivandrum, Calicut and Chennai in India, Dubai, Karachi, Lahore, Bangkok and Dhaka.

The company was started as an international airline over five years ago in 1997 under Shafik Kassim who is the Managing Director and was recertified under International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) guidelines in 2000. This was done as part of the strategy implemented by the Department of Civil Aviation of Sri Lanka to bring civil aviation in the country to internationally accepted standards.

"Our's was the first airline to be certified as an airline operator under these international requirements introduced under the ICAO project in Sri Lanka," Mr. Marikar said.

The parent company - Expolanka Group started in 1978 consists of over 30 companies involved in airline GSAs, inbound and outbound travel, freight forwarding, imports and exports, general trading, commodity trading, food processing, construction, agriculture, real estate, manufacture (garment accessories, packaging material and essential oil), shipping and charter flight operations.

In addition to its head office in Colombo, the group has branch offices in India, Dubai, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Madagascar, Pakistan and the Maldives.

Director, Expo Aviation, Hanif Yusoof attributed the company's success to human resource development and the right strategy of recruitment. 

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