SriLankan to double flights to London, add Indian cities

By Chandani Jayatilleke

SriLankan Airlines hopes to double capacity to London, its sole European gateway, by seeking permission for two flights a day, while strengthening its regional network, adding more cities in India and increasing flights to the Seychelles and East Asia as part of a restructuring of its fleet and routes.

Captain Suren Ratwatte, CEO of SriLankan Airlines, said the national carrier, which today, operates seven flights to London, will increase capacity to nine flights during the winter season.

By the first week of November, SriLankan's sole gateway to Europe will be London, as it stops flights to Continental Europe, which will be served by a number of code shares with partners.

"We got the winter schedule slots - night flights," Ratwatte told Observer Business. "We are asking all year after that. If we are given the slots we will do another seven, two flights daily to London, which is a very busy airport. We have asked for double daily, but haven't got it yet.

We're working on it. We have the capacity to increase it to 14 flights to London - obtaining aircraft is not a problem. London is a good destination. However, our best routes are regional - Chennai, Male, Bangalore, Dhaka, and Bahrain and Muscat routes from Mihin Lanka."

Under the current restructuring program, the airline's fleet strategy for the future will complement the network strategy of more medium and short haul destinations using narrow-body aircraft and wide-body aircraft with lower ownership costs.

"We want to concentrate on our strengths and do well in the region," said Capt. Ratwatte. "We will focus on regional routes which are profitable. Going forward, we will reduce wide-body airplanes and increase narrow body planes. We will have 10 narrow body aircraft and 10 wide-body aircraft by the end of this year. We have ordered six more narrow-body aircraft and will have a fleet of 24 aircraft - 14 A320s and 10 A330s - at the end of the next financial year with two Mihin Lanka aircraft also coming under SriLankan Airlines."

The national carrier also wants to increase fights to China, Ratwatte said. "It is a tough market, but we have to stay in there. The Chinese travel a lot. Right now demand is for in-bound travel. For Sri Lankans to go there is not easy as it is difficult to get visas."

SriLankan also aims to add flights to regional destinations like India, having last week announced flights to Gan Island, in the Maldives, the only international carrier to do so.

It also plans to increase flights to Seychelles to four times a week.

"We are really positive about Pakistan and we like to go to Delhi and Mumbai twice daily," Ratwatte said. "We want to add more cities in India with our new aircraft due next year. There is a tremendous demand for Indian sectors and our product is very good.

"All our regional routes are far superior to competition," he added.