Korean Air to re-commence operations

Scheduled flights by Korean Air (KE) will commence from early March next year enhancing connectivity between Colombo and Korea.

KE will soon be adding Colombo and Male to its online route network. "We are happy to be back in Sri Lanka after a lapse of 28 years," a KE official said.

Alpha Tours was re-appointed as the General Sales Agents(GSA) for the airline.

The airline will target travellers on the USA, Japanese and Chinese routes. "We expect a 75 percent cabin factor in our first year of operations," he said.

"We are confident that the re-commencing of Korean Air will be a boost to the country's tourist industry. There will be three flights per week on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday and customers can travel comfortably within five hours to Korea," a representative for Alpha Tours said.

Alpha Tours, an associate company of the Finco group has been the general sales agent in Sri Lanka for Korean Air since 1976.

Korean Air came to Colombo in 1978 and withdrew its flights to Colombo in 1984 due to commercial reasons.

In 1989, on the initiative of Alpha Tours, KE commenced ad-hoc cargo charter flights using an A300-F and was thus the first carrier to operate a freight service to Colombo.

The KE freight service greatly helped garment manufacturers and freight forwarders at a time when there was a heavy backlog in Colombo for USA-bound shipment.

KE initially had to pay a royalty to Sri Lankan Airlines. However, Alpha Tours and the Freight Forwarders Association got a waiver on the charge.

KE continued to operate the freight service to Colombo using a B747-200F and a MD11 aircraft. KE was the first to carry 75 tonnes of tuna fish on a single flight. KE also took two baby elephants to Japan and Korea.

- SJ