Etihad Airways back in Sri Lanka

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, resumed flights to Sri Lanka on January 1, operating four A320 flights per week between Abu Dhabi and Colombo.

The flights have been carefully scheduled to facilitate onward connections from a number of key destinations on the airline's network, including Moscow and North America. Describing Sri Lanka as an established market with a strong local traffic base, Etihad Airways chief commercial officer, Peter Baumgartner, said he is confident the resumption of Etihad flights will be welcomed by the considerable Sri Lankan expatriate community living in the UAE and those living across the Middle East region who will be able to connect quickly and easily back home via Abu Dhabi.

"Etihad Airways is confident that with the end of the civil conflict in Sri Lanka, tourist traffic will increase in the coming months." "We have an enormous opportunity to make a real contribution to the growth of trade and tourism as Sri Lanka re-establishes its position in the global arena," he added.