SriLankan Airlines plans to improve connections to major Indian cities by adding several flight
s to Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore, a statement said.The island's national carrier, one of the largest overseas operators into India, will add three more flights a week to Mumbai, and one more to both Chennai and Bangalore, starting December 01.
“We are expanding our operations to India," SriLankan’s Head of Worldwide Sales Mohamed Fazeel said.
"Our aim is to provide several flights a day to all major cities there to allow travellers to choose which time of day they would prefer to fly.
"We intend to add additional flights on each route wherever possible next year.”
SriLankan also recently announced that it will be acquiring seven more aircraft by the end of 2011, including five Airbus A320s that would serve Indian destinations.
December’s additional flights would bring the Mumbai service up to 10 flights a week from the earlier daily frequency.
The additional flights would be on Monday, Thursday and Saturday.
SriLankan Airlines’ service to Chennai would rise to 15 flights a week, with three on Friday, and two on all other days.
Morning flights to Chennai depart Colombo at 7:30 a.m. and arrive at 8:50 a.m. Departure from Chennai is at 10:30 a.m, arriving in Colombo at 11:50 a.m.
Evening flights leave Colombo at 6:35 p.m, arriving in Chennai at 7:55 p.m. The return flight departs Chennai at 8:55 p.m. and touches down in Colombo at 10:15 p.m.
Friday’s third flight leaves Colombo at 12:50 p.m., and arrives in Chennai at 2:10 p.m. It leaves Chennai at 3:10 p.m, and arrives back in Colombo at 4:20 p.m.
Flights to Mumbai depart Colombo daily at midnight and reach their destination at 2:20 a.m. The return flight leaves Mumbai at 3:20 a.m. and arrives in Colombo at 5:40 a.m.
The additional three flights on Monday, Thursday and Saturday are in the evenings, departing Colombo at 4 p.m. and touching down in Mumbai at 6:20 p.m. They leave Mumbai at 7:10 p.m. and arrive back in Colombo at 9:40 p.m.
The additional flight to Bangalore would bring it up to a daily frequency.
SriLankan Airlines also has seven flights a week to New Delhi, seven to Trivandrum and 10 to Trichy.
"India is also one of the most popular destinations among Sri Lankan travellers, for everything from leisure to business and studies," the airline statement said.
"Large numbers of businessmen from both countries travel to and fro daily, with India being one of Sri Lanka’s largest trading partners."
Indian visitors make up the largest tourist segment to Sri Lanka, where the tourism industry has been booming since a 30-year war ended in May 2009.
In the first nine months of 2010, a total of 82,342 Indian travellers visited Sri Lanka, a 49 percent increase from the same period in 2009.
The airline said it is also re-launching its domestic service, SriLankan Air Taxi, in November 2010, which would enable visitors to reach any part of the island within an hour.
Also, large numbers of Indian travellers transit Colombo to destinations as far as North America, Europe and the Far East, as well as nearer regions such as the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
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