Sri Lankan Airlines – the national carrier of Sri Lanka, announced that it will increase the frequency of its daily flights, that connect New Delhi and Colombo. Starting from July 4th this flight shall operate three times daily which will depart from Delhi on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
With the additional frequencies between the two capitals SriLankan’s total weekly offerings reaches to 18 flights in a week. The flight will offer seamless onward connectivity to Melbourne, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Jakarta and Gan Island.
Sri Lankan Airlines’ top management team Including CEO Vipula Gunathilake, Joshua Bustos – Chief Commercial Officer, Dimuthu Tennakoon – Head of Worldwide Sales and Distribution, Chinthaka Weerasinghe – Country Manager, along with the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India, Austin Fernando was present in New Delhi to announce the launch.
Speaking on the occasion, Vipula Gunathilake, CEO, SriLankan Airlines said India is a very important market for SriLankan and the market had shown strong support by opting the destination despite the recent Easter Sunday blasts.” “SriLankan operates 117 weekly flights to India which is by far the highest compared to any other country. India contributes nearly 24% of the total passenger loads for the airline,” he added.
He further informed that due to the huge financial loss in the recent years SriLankan is looking for potential investors from this market. The airline is going through a loss for reasons such as mismanagement which is being addressed with the restructuring plan and various new initiatives.
Chinthaka Weerasinghe, Country Manager, SriLankan Airlines, said that major chunk of the Leisure, MICE and the emerging segment of Destination Wedding travel originate from Delhi. Apart from the point to point traffic Colombo has increasingly become a transit point for onward travel to Australia, Singapore and Maldives for Indian travellers.
In the coming months, the Airlines will focus on increasing frequency on other tourism generating routes as well. It will increase its fleet of aircrafts from 27 to 34 in another five years with an aim to improve the business model.
“Indian is one of the top three tourism generating markets for Sri Lanka and for the National Carrier, it has been the extended home market, where expansion opportunities are constantly explored to facilitate more travellers who seek to experience Sri Lanka and beyond,” the company’s press release claims.
Subhash Goyal, Chairman, Stic Travel – GSA for SriLankan Airlines said, “Increase in flight frequency will facilitate tourists’ movement between the two countries.”
Currently, the airline operates from many Indian destinations including Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Tiruchirappalli, Trivandrum, Cochin, Madurai, Kolkata, and Coimbatore besides the seasonal flights to/from Bodh Gaya, and Varanasi.
