The Hindu Business Line : SriLankan to increase fuel surcharge, looks at 150 flights a week

New Delhi, Nov 27 SriLankan Airlines, the largest foreign airline operating to India, is to increase the fuel surcharge by $8 from December 1 this year. Airline officials said that the increase in the global prices of fuel had forced SriLankan to increase the fuel surcharge.

“The fuel surcharge would not apply to those passengers who have purchased their tickets before December 1. But any ticket purchased after December 1 would attract the new fuel surcharge,” a senior SriLankan official said.

The airline joins a growing number of international airlines that have increased the fuel surcharge in the recent past. Earlier this month, Swiss which started a daily flight between Delhi and Zurich from last Monday increased the fuel surcharge by $10 per sector to $87. In October this year, Singapore Airlines also increased the fuel surcharge.

More flights to india

Meanwhile, SriLankan is looking to increase its weekly operations to India. Addressing a press conference to announce the launch of 100 weekly flights to India, the airline Chief Executive Officer, Mr Peter Hill, said that the plan was to reach 150 weekly flights in the next five years. The airline has steadily been increasing its presence in India from 38 weekly flights in 2002 to 74 weekly flights in 2004 and touched 100 weekly flights on Monday.

“The airline has the option of exploring 15 other tier II cities and can also look at operating to Kolkata,” said Mr Manoj Gunawardena, Head of Worldwide Passenger Sales.

Emirates contract

The airline also plans to increase its fleet strength to 30 aircraft by 2013 and would look to both expand and launch services to different parts of the globe, airline officials said. A clearer picture on the expansion plans would emerge in the next few months after a decision is taken on whether the Sri Lankan Government wants to extend the management contract of Emirates airlines to run SriLankan.

The contract is set to expire at the end of March next year and talks are scheduled to be held in early January next year. “We are hopeful that an agreement would be concluded that would be in the best interest of the Sri Lankan Government and Emirates airlines,” officials said.

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