It has been a wild few weeks for global aviation, particularly for airlines based in the Middle East. For many years, carriers like Emirates and Qatar Airways have been transporting passengers traveling across the globe, and their success with this has largely been due to the safe image these destinations have.
Suffice it to say that recent times have really challenged that. We’ve seen Gulf carriers frequently have to suspend operations due to incoming missiles, and one imagines that this conflict won’t end overnight. Along those lines, could the major Gulf carriers be considering a more creative strategy to keep operations going, without disruption?
Sri Lanka offers hub to Emirates & Qatar Airways
It’s being reported that the government of Sri Lanka has initiated preliminary discussions with both Emirates and Qatar Airways, with the intent of offering one of Sri Lanka’s airports as an alternative hub for the foreseeable future.
This doesn’t center around Colombo Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB), the country’s largest airport. Instead, this is about Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (HRI), often referred to as the country’s “ghost airport.” The billion dollar airport opened back in 2013, and unfortunately has seen very little commercial service, so it has been a bit of an embarrassment for the country.
At least the airport now has some additional seasonal service — you can fly Russia’s Red Wings from Chelyabinsk, Kazan, Mineralnye Vody, Samara, Sochi, and Tyumen!
Both airlines have reportedly “expressed strong interest” in moving some of their operations to the southern Sri Lankan airport. Now, it’s anyone’s guess how serious that interest is, but that’s seemingly what the government is claiming.
When you consider the percentage of Emirates’ network that involves moving people from Europe and Africa to Asia and the South Pacific, then you realize the geography of this hub is potentially quite good, as it sits along popular Indian Ocean east-west aviation corridors, and it’s also far south of the current conflict zone.
Sri Lanka hopes that such a setup could provide a vital economic lifeline to the country, especially as the current situation in the Middle East has caused a steep decline in tourism to Sri Lanka, due to flight cancelations.
Something creative will need to happen, but…
It’s really hard to know how this conflict will play out. Currently, it seems like airlines are approaching this as a short term challenge that will be resolved soon, and expect full operations to resume ASAP. I’m certainly no expert on geopolitics, but I have to imagine there’s also a very real possibility that this could go on for many weeks, months, or possibly even years.
Presumably if airlines knew things wouldn’t be fully back to normal for a year, they’d start making some alternative arrangements. As I see it, Sri Lanka’s idea here isn’t half bad. Sri Lanka does have good geography, and Sri Lanka has the “good fortune” of having a basically abandoned airport that has huge capacity but no demand — talk about a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make something of it. 😉
Given what a large percentage of Emirates’ network is connecting, I could see merit to rerouting some of the most common connecting itineraries via Sri Lanka. For example, you could operate flights to London, Sydney, etc. We’ve already seen Qatar Airways operate point-to-point routes from Europe to Asia (simply skipping Doha), so this hardly seems like the wildest idea.
As I see it, the biggest challenge is how quickly you can really ramp up operations. Sure, the airport is technically big enough to accommodate A380s, but how long would it actually take to get all the ground equipment, set up catering, have sufficient housing and hotels near the airport, etc.? This is all easier said than done, and I imagine this would be viewed as too much of a headache for a temporary situation.
Bottom line
Sri Lanka is offering up its “ghost airport” as a hub for airlines like Emirates and Qatar Airways, with government officials claiming that the airlines are interested. If it does become necessary to route operations via other regions, then a large, nearly abandoned airport, with good geography, seems like a decent choice.
While I obviously see the upside here for Sri Lanka, I have to imagine this is unlikely to happen in the near future, given the amount of preparation that would be required to get this up and running.
What do you make of the concept of a Gulf carrier setting up a hub in Sri Lanka?