The temporal configuration of Bandaranaike International Airport as an aviation hub of the future

The temporal configuration of Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), Sri Lanka is reviewed through this paper with the view of assessing the current performance of the airport which envisions its development into an aviation hub in South Asian region. Connectivity is evaluated by assessing the coordination of the published time-table of flights at the airport for the first week of July 2012. Two major concepts utilised in the study are: (1) Wave-System-Structure: which examined the arrival and departure flight patterns at BIA to identify whether there is a coordinated wave system created by banks of arrival and departure flights and (2) Hub Connectivity Indicator: which measured the quality of the connections created by the Wave-System-Structure as equivalent to a direct flight. The airport has a Wave-System-Structure mainly driven by the operations of the home carrier. On absolute terms quality of the temporal connectivity of the flight schedule at BIA is judged as low based on the fact that only 38% of the total viable connections made are equal to the quality of a direct connection. To assess the relative performance of the airport, it should be judged against the performance of nearby hub airports in the South Asian region.