The Hindu Business Line : Jet Air begins daily flights to Colombo at Rs 7,460

JET Airways has become the third Indian carrier to fly into Sri Lanka and has come out with a promotional fare of Rs 7,460 on the Chennai-Colombo-Chennai sector up to April 30.

On Tuesday, the airline connected Colombo with Chennai, operating daily flights on this sector with a Boeing 737 800. Mr Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, Chief Executive Officer, Jet Airways, said that the airline would soon connect Bangalore and Mumbai with Colombo bringing a total of 28 flights a week from its network to the island nation.

It plans to fly to all the SAARC countries, and is also evaluating flying to Pakistan.

Speaking at a press conference, he said Jet Airways would be able to enhance tourism to Sri Lanka as the airline has a base of seven million loyal customers. He said that the linking of Colombo and Chennai is consequent to the historic initiative taken by the Prime Ministers of Sri Lanka and India to promote trade and movement of people between the two countries.

The daily flight leaves Chennai at 11 a.m. and arrives in Colombo at 1.20 p.m. (local time). In the return direction, the flight will depart Colombo at 2.45 p.m. and arrive in Chennai 3.35 p.m. The one-way economy fare on the Chennai-Colombo sector is Rs 4,145 and the business class fare is Rs 6,615.

The airline has tied-up with John Keells Holdings (JKH) as its general sales agent in Sri Lanka. JKH has interests in hotels, transportations, banking, supermarkets and banking.

Mr Susantha Ratnanayanke, Joint Managing Director, JKH, said that this is a significant step for tourism.