Tag Archives: SriLankan Airlines

SriLankan Airlines is on an expansion drive in India. Calling India its biggest market, Siva Ramachandran, CCO, SriLankan Airlines, said that they have seen a 15 per cent growth from India in the last one year. “This does not include the trader community which travels more regularly. If we add them, it’d be more than 20 per cent. We are going to increase the frequencies in India. Currently, we are operating 107 frequencies a week. By the middle of this year, we are hoping to make it 130 frequencies a week. We are adding three more destinations into india—Hyderabad, Vishakhapatnam and Coimbatore. We are also increasing flights to Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi,” he informed.    

SriLankan Airlines has inducted the first of its latest Airbus aircraft—A320neo. The aircraft arrived on March 6 and will be the first of the A320neo and A321neo family aircraft in its fleet. Ajith Dias, Chairman of SriLankan Airlines, said: “Our airline realigned its strategic focus during the last quarter of 2016 to capitalize on market opportunities in the rapidly growing travel and tourism industry in Asia, which included the launch of services to 11new destinations throughout the Indian Ocean and Middle East regions. The arrival of the A320neo and A321neo aircraft will better align our fleet to this objective, as these aircraft are more suited to our medium-haul operations, while we already possess an excellent fleet of A330 aircraft for our long-haul routes.”

The Sri Lankan carrier, Mihin Lanka will stop its services effective October 30, 2016. This decision has been made by the Government of Sri Lanka, as part of its long term strategy to restructure the local aviation industry and strengthen the national carrier’s offering and efficiency. Chinthaka Weerasinghe, Manager Northern India, SriLankan Airlines, says, “There are four routes that we will be taking over in India itself; Madurai, Kolkata, Varanasi and Bodh Gaya. With these operations we will be having overall 103 flights in a week from 11 destinations in India. This will make us one of the top five international airlines operating into India in terms of frequency as well as seat capacity.”

Sri Lanka is emerging as a high potential incentive destination and corporate venue for employee incentive trips and business meetings, having witnessed an impressive growth of over 15 per cent YOY, with over 233,000 MICE visitors from India in the past six years, according to data from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Thomas Cook (India) recently hosted an exclusive corporate event in collaboration with Sri Lanka Convention Bureau and SriLankan Airlines to harness the demand for MICE travel to Sri Lanka across mid and large Indian corporates and SMEs. TCI’s internal research and consumer analysis reiterates the significant and growing opportunity of India’s corporate segment, with interest for Sri Lanka as a MICE destination having grown by 15-20 per cent YOY over the last three years. The exclusive corporate event in Mumbai was attended by the crème de la crème of the corporate world, Saroja Siresena, The Consul General of Sri Lanka in Mumbai, and Bollywood celebrity Jacqueline Fernandez.

SriLankan Airlines has signed on board Bollywood actor Jacqueline Fernandez as their brand ambassador. The letter of agreement was signed between SriLankan Airlines Chairman Ajit Dias and Jacqueline Fernandez on July 30, 2016, at St. Regis Hotel, Mumbai. With this collaboration it made her, the face of SriLankan Airlines and the brand continues to strengthen its presence in India. Speaking on the occasion, Ajit Dias, Chairman, SriLankan Airlines, said “We are delighted to have Jacqueline Fernandez as the Brand Ambassador for SriLankan Airlines. Jacqueline’s strong connect, passion towards Sri Lanka and being an iconic profile in Sri Lanka aligns her naturally with the brand, just like our other two brand ambassadors, Mahila Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara.”

In an attempt to increase the visibility of Seychelles in the Indian market and increase the number of Indian tourist arrivals to the island, Seychelles Tourism Board conducted tourism promotional roadshows in Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. This was a follow up of similar roadshows conducted in Delhi and Mumbai in 2014. In 2015, Seychelles saw 183 per cent growth in tourist arrivals compared to 2014 and 85 per cent growth from January-April 2016 as compared to the same period last year. Addressing the travel trade, Sherin Naiken, CEO, Seychelles Tourism Board, said, “We are in India to invite you all to be our partners on the ground here and to work with us to offer your clients and the Indian holiday makers a new holiday destination.” Many travel and tourism industry representatives were present at the roadshows namely, Air Seychelles, Ethiopian Airlines, SriLankan Airlines, Kempinski Seychelles Resort, Eden Island Development Company, Constance Ephelia Resort, Sainte Anne Resort & Spa, Banyan Tree Seychelles, AVANI Seychelles Barbarons Resort & Spa, Le Relax Hotels – Seychelles, Enchanted Island Resort and Savoy Resort & Spa Seychelles, Holidays Box and Akquasun Group. Alain St.Ange, Tourism Minister of Seychelles was also present at the event. Anges explained that India and Seychelles are connected by direct non-stop flight from Mumbai on Air Seychelles with seamless connections from Bangalore with Jet Airways, a partner airline of Air Seychelles and is also well connected with Ethiopian Airlines, SriLanka Airlines, Kenya Airways, Etihad and Emirates. He also added, Indian nationals do not need visas to travel to Seychelles and a range of accommodation establishments are available to suit every budget.