Commercial flights from KIA to Palaly by year end

by Shirajiv Sirimane

Commercial flights between the Colombo International Airport and Palaly will be launched by the end of this year. Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Dayasritha Tissera said that the government is planning to lease a 50 seater aircraft for this operation. “The airline operated by Mihin Lanka would be Sri Lanka’s first domestic low cost flight,” he said.

The Minister said that there had been several requests especially from the Tamil diaspora for an immediate air connection from the Colombo International airport to Jaffna and President Mahinda Rajapaksa was keen on it.

He said that the airline hopes to launch daily flights and the frequency would increase according to the demand. Tissera said that the proposed Colombo-Jaffna flight would also be open to passengers and they could purchase the tickets from Mihin Lanka offices, book online or through a travel agent.

“Since the flight would be on a low cost model the fares would be very competitive,” he said. Mihin Lanka will also launch direct flights to Bangladesh from November and a new aircraft will be acquired for this operation. “This flight would have a stop over in the Maldives,” he said.

The Deputy Minister said that the Ministry has also decided to re-develop the domestic air service and this too would add value to Sri Lanka as a destination especially when the country is marketed for tourism.