flydubai to operate MRIA flights

Shirajiv Sirimane in UAE

flydubai, Dubai’s innovative airline, will operate flights to the new Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) from May 21. It will operate flights thrice a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

The airline has also decided to operate a daily frequency from MRIA from June making it the first airline to launch daily flights at the new airport.

flydubai currently operates daily flights to Colombo and with the introduction of daily flights to MRIA from June; the airline would have a double daily to Sri Lanka.

Through this second route to the island, flydubai continues to further support the Government’s efforts to bring in 2.5 million visitors a year by 2016. The airline carried 104,000 passengers in 2012, recording a remarkable 67 percent year-on-year growth.

“We are grateful to the authorities for their continued support and for giving flydubai the opportunity to serve the Sri Lankan market. We launched flights to Colombo in July 2010 with a four-times a week service, said flydubai's Chief Commercial Officer, Hamad Obaidalla.”

Following increased demand this rose to five times a week two months later, before daily operations began in March 2012. We are delighted to launch operations to the new Mattala Airport, which will help increase accessibility and drive the development of the Eastern and Southern coasts,” he said.To better accommodate the surge in passenger traffic to Sri Lanka specially from Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), flydubai has focused on improving connection times in Dubai.

Its new, more convenient schedule led to a 911 percent increase in the number of passengers connecting from 34 weekly flights to Colombo to date.

“We are always exploring new opportunities to connect Dubai to other destinations within our network. Through this new route, those seeking leisure breaks from Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS can take advantage of the affordable, high quality service for onward travel to Sri Lanka through Dubai,” said Obaidalla.

“flydubai has a comprehensive network to the CIS and Central and Eastern Europe, connecting Colombo, and once in operation at Hambantota, to 15 destinations in 10 countries in the region,” a spokesman for the airline said.