Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has assured UNP MP Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena that he would explore the possibility of launching SLAF commercial flights between Ratmalana and Palaly.

The launch of SLAF flights would compel private sector airline operators to revise their existing fare structure, the MP has been told.

Jayawardena told The Island yesterday that he had had a one-to-one meeting with Mr. Rajapaksa at the Defence Ministry last Friday (June 3) to seek the government’s intervention to facilitate the forthcoming feast of Our Lady of Madhu and to bring down the cost of domestic air travel. He said though airlines now took a direct overland route to Palaly, they hadn’t revised their pre-LTTE pricing formula.

Responding to our queries, the MP said that he had received an assurance that the Defence Ministry would do everything possible to facilitate the Madhu feast. He said that he was told that Defence Ministry approval would allow a group of workers from the South to install 14 stations of the way of the cross to the shrine of the our Lady of Madhu. He added that the Most Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph, Bishop of Mannar had accepted his offer.

Jayawardena expressed confidence that Mr. Rajapaksa’s intervention would definitely help his cause.

The MP has assured Rajapaksa that he didn’t represent the interests of the LTTE but strived to provide assistance to the Tamil community at the receiving end of the war.

Air Force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara told The Island that earlier both commercial and SLAF flights (cargo and passenger transport aircraft) to Palaly took a longer route over the sea to avoid being targeted by LTTE missiles. Now that the LTTE had been wiped out and a missile threat no longer existed, aircraft could reach Palaly in a relatively short time.