The Hindu Business Line : SriLankan to enhance operations in India

Colombo, Nov 5 SriLankan Airlines plans to add more destinations in India, which is emerging as its major market with gradual increase in passenger traffic.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Chandana De Silva, Head of Corporate Communications, SriLankan, said “we are planning to connect all the south Indian airports by SriLankan.”. To take the airlines to other potential destinations in India and other foreign countries and to enhance the frequencies, “we would be expanding our fleet from the present 14 aircrafts to 24 in the coming days. In this context discussions are on with our equity partner, Emirates airlines, he said.

Now the airlines had added Coimbatore to its network on October 29. “We have been operating two cargo flights a week to Coimbatore and it had proved to be a viable sector, he said. Besides, for the benefit of those working in the Gulf and other countries around the world the airlines has decided to launch its services from Coimbatore to Colombo”, he said. There are good number of businessmen from this part of India visiting Sri Lanka on short vacations and for them introduction of flights from Coimbatore currently for four days a week would make their travel more convenient and comfortable, he said.

It already has services to Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode and Kochi in Kerala and Chennai and Tiruchi in Tamil Nadu, he said.

In the past, tourist arrivals from the UK was on the higher side but of late Indians have overtaken them and took the top slot. A short 70-minute flight from Kerala and Tamil Nadu would bring travellers to Colombo, where the airline has rapid connections to its global network of 54 destinations in 28 countries.

Colombo’s Bandaranaike International airport has earned a reputation as the finest in the South Asian region following its recent expansion, with its modern terminal and aerobridges, comfortable lounges, and well-stocked duty-free shopping complex.

“Over 50 per cent of the passengers arriving at Colombo airport from India are for connected flights to various other destinations, as apart from other comforts the fares are also competitive”, Mr De Silva said.

Another plus point is that the Indians need not have to obtain a visa to travel to its Island neighbour where as a Sri Lankan national should have a visa for travelling to India, he said. If similar visa concession is made available to Sri Lankan Nationals that would enhance the passenger traffic from here to India, he said.

“SriLankan Airlines has positioned Colombo as the gateway to India, and we are continuously increasing our services there. This includes the addition of more and more cities across India to our route network”, Mr Peter Hill, CEO of SriLankan, said.

According to Mr Manoj Gunawardena, Head of Worldwide Passenger sales, “our new service to Coimbatore will provide convenient access to and from all regions in our international network, we are confident that the new service would be useful to many segments particularly, business and leisure travellers.”