SriLankan flies to more destinations

by Shirajiv SIRIMANE reporting from London

SriLankan Airlines will increase its frequencies to Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany and France and hoping to re-connect more flights to Indian destinations, said CEO of SriLankan Airlines, Manoj Gunawardane.

He said that the Airline will start flights to Milan from December 16 and operate two daily flights to London. The Airline will also consider a new destination in Germany and increase frequencies to Milan and France, he said.

The CEO said that they would re connect Hyderabad and Cochin as there is a demand for these two sectors.

We are working with Sri Lanka tourism and the travel sector to help promote Sri Lanka as a destination, he said. He said that this is the first time after 30 years of war they are attending the World Travel Mart (WTM) and the feedback they received was very encouraging. This is why we have decided to have two flights a day to London, he added.

He said the airlines faced a down turn during the past two years and it was no exception to SriLankan. We have re fleeted and are rebounding and the cargo sector is doing well which is a positive factor, he said.

Commenting on the Mihin Lanka operations he said that it is not having any negative impact on SriLankan as they have a well coordinated marketing approach.

SriLankan Airlines do not give up anything for Mihin and Mihin does not take anything from us, he stressed. He also said that they may re-start the stalled air taxi service if there is an industry demand. We stoped operations due to security reasons, he said. The Internet bookings are increasing and it accounts to six per cent of the airline sales. We hope to increase this to 20 per cent by end of next year, Gunawardane said. The ‘hot seats’ promotions are becoming popular and the ‘destination of the week campaign’ has been successful.

Expressing his views on the low cost carriers he said that they have helped to increase the market size which has benefited Sri Lanka as well.