Category: Shipping and Transport

July 8, 2007 (AFP) – Dubai’s Emirates Airline said Sunday that night flights to Sri Lanka will resume after the end of a curfew in response to Tamil rebel air raids, but other carriers have not followed suit.The rebels, who are fighting for an independent homeland for the tropical island’s minority ethnic Tamils, have bombed […]

June 30, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lankan security authorities plan to install underwater surveillance systems in Colombo harbour to enhance the defences of the port which handles most of the island’s trade. London’s Metropolitan Police said Chrishanthakumar is accused of receiving literature and manuals allegedly included information about underwater warfare and naval weapons systems and […]

June 28 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Colombo port risks losing its status as south Asia’s transshipment hub if it does not move fast to add more capacity and make trade more streamlined, a senior Asian Development Bank official said. Although Colombo has a good reputation for reliability the country has not done enough to exploit […]

June 28 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s national shipping line has shelved plans to acquire a tanker for crude oil imports and is going ahead with the purchase of a cargo vessel to supply the northern Jaffna peninsula, an official said Ceylon Shipping Corporation (CSC) officials said a cargo ship is the more urgent requirement because […]

June 28 (LBO) – Sri Lankan exporters look set for difficult times with freight rates on the rise and their cargo being squeezed out of container ships chock full of Chinese exports, a top freight forwarder said Wednesday. “We do have a problem,” Niral Kadawatharatchie, chairman of the Sri Lanka Freight Forwarders’ Association told its […]

June 21, 2007(LBO) – One of Sri Lanka’s largest used vehicle importers plans to import small cars from China and strike a deal with a big Chinese automaker to assemble vehicles locally, an official said.Sterling Automobiles, which claims to import half the reconditioned vehicles to the country from Japan, has just launched a brand new […]

June 19, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s only international airport is to resume around-the-clock operations after air raids by the Tamil Tiger rebels forced its closure at night, an official said Tuesday. The Tamil Tiger rebels have been fighting for a separate homeland since 1972. More than 60,000 people have been killed in the conflict.The […]

DUBAI, June 18, 2007 (AFP) – The booming Gulf emirate of Dubai said on Monday it has bought the Queen Elizabeth 2, one of the world’s most majestic cruise liners, for 100 million dollars from Britain’s Cunard Line.The ship will be berthed at a man-made island off the coast of Dubai and turned into a […]

June 18, 2007 (LBO) – South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT), Colombo Port’s privatised container facility, aims to handle 1.6 million containers by the end of this year, as India’s bulging trade volumes increase the flow of cargo through the harbour. SAGT’s new chief executive, Steven Edkins, believes Colombo will retain its status as South Asia’s […]

June 15, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence conglomerate is exiting from its ship-owning business because of lower earnings from chartering and rising maintenance costs, the company has said. The group has begun selling its fleet of small cargo ships which until recently helped boost the group’s bottom line. The group made a “strategic […]

June 12, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka should switch to mass urban transport to combat traffic congestion, and start a powerful umbrella organization to implement projects, a Sri Lankan-born professional heading a big US transport utility has advocated.The island should also build concrete roads, said Walter Wickramasinghe, Vice President and Director of Management of Metropolitan […]

VANCOUVER, Canada, June 5, 2007 (AFP) – The International Air Transport Association has given member airlines and travel agencies five extra months to switch entirely to electronic ticketing, to May 2008.IATA initially had scheduled the switchover to e-tickets, eliminating paper tickets, to be completed by December 31. The decision to extend the deadline was taken […]