Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake presenting budget proposals for 2016 to parliament pointed out that there is considerable travel between Africa and East Asia and it is estimated to grow substantially in the next 10 years.

He proposed to the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotional Bureau to get together with the international Airlines to create strategies to attract those tourists and entice them to stopover in Sri Lanka in their travel from East to West.

With a view to promoting domestic tourism in the country, the Minister proposed to exempt airlines using domestic airports from ground handling charges and other fees. They will be liable to pay only a license fee of Rs.1.5 million per year.

To improve the domestic air transportation, three new domestic airports will be established at Digana, Badulla and Puttalam through a PPP arrangement.

The Minister also proposed to increase the over flying charges of commercial planes by 20 percent from 01, January 2016.