SriLankan Airlines strengthens Middle East operation

SriLankan Airlines said that it would strengthen its operations to the Middle East region during the recently concluded Arabian Travel Market (ATM ) held in Dubai.

Chairman Nishantha Wickremasinghe at the airline's booth at the Arabian Travel Market

The airline currently flies 47 times a week to nine of the GCC countries in the Middle East, to Abu Dhabi, Dubai,Bahrain, Doha, Muscat, Dammam, Riyadh, Jeddah and Kuwait.

"We see a substantial increase in arrivals from the Middle East region and as the national carrier we hope to facilitate tourism to Sri Lanka by strengthening our presence in the region.

The commencement of direct flights to Dubai and Kuwait from May 1 was a step towards increasing capacity and connectivity from two of our major markets to Colombo", said Chairman Sri Lankan Airlines, Nishantha Wickramasinghe.

Since last year, SriLankan increased its frequencies to Bahrain (three to five),Doha (five to daily), Muscat (two to four) and Jeddah (three) each week. The launch of daily direct services to Kuwait, which was earlier routed through Dubai, means the de-linking of the two cities will now ensure speedier outbound travel for passengers to Colombo and beyond.

"The extra frequencies have raised SriLankans' overall capacity by 42 percent" Wickremasinghe said.

The Gulf region is also a major thrust market for Sri Lanka, which is looking to attract one million visitors this year, after greeting 855,975 in 2011.