SriLankan Airlines to increase flights to 12 cities for winter tourist season
-Oct 15th, 2009

SriLankan Airlines will increase flights this winter season to a dozen cities throughout Europe, the Middle East, the Subcontinent, and Far East, based on its projection that passenger numbers will definitely increase following the Dawn of Peace in Sri Lanka.

Mohamed Fazeel, Head of Worldwide Sales at SriLankan, said: “Forward booking for winter season is very encouraging and we are providing more flights to destination where we experience high market growth. These increase in flights will be effective from 25th October, and our new Milan service will be launched on 16th December.”

The country’s tourism industry has witnessed steady growth since its 30-year war ended in May, with tourists flocking to the island despite the global economic downturn which has discouraged air travel. Statistics from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority show that tourism from all countries grew by 34% in August 2009 in comparison to the same month in the previous year, and 28% in July.

In Europe, Sri Lanka’s National Carrier is launching a new twice-weekly service to Milan in northern Italy, with considerable expectations of increased Italian tourism into Sri Lanka. It is also adding two flights a week to London, bringing the number of flights to 12. The UK has long been one of the largest tourism markets into Sri Lanka, and also has a sizeable population of Sri Lankan immigrants.

In the Far East, SriLankan will add no less than three additional flights to both Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, which will each be served by 10 flights per week. This will also serve Sri Lankan outbound traffic to these popular Southeast Asian cities. One additional flight will commence to Hong Kong, which will then have 4 weekly flights.

Four cities in the Subcontinent region will receive additional flights, to support South Asian tourism into Sri Lanka. Trichy in south India and the Maldivian capital Male will each receive two additional flights. Trichy will then have a total of 9 per week, while Male, where SriLankan has for many years been the largest carrier, will have no less than 23. The airline is also increasing one flight each to Bangalore and Karachi, which will then have 5 and 3 flights respectively.

The airline will increase one flight per week to Bahrain, Doha and Dammam, which will thus be served by 3, 5 and 4 weekly flights respectively.

With the addition of Milan, SriLankan will expand its route network to 44 destinations in 29 countries across the world. Despite the worldwide slowdown in air travel due to the global economic meltdown, SriLankan is continuing to strengthen its route network by launching services to selected destinations, and by strengthening its codeshare network with partner airlines. In July SriLankan expanded its network to Los Angeles, Sydney, Melbourne, Jakarta, and Seoul through an enhanced partnership with Malaysia Airlines. Last October, SriLankan expanded its partnership with Etihad to cover Geneva, Dublin, Munich, Brussels, Manchester, and Amman.