Cinnamon Air takes wing
View(s):The latest domestic airline operation, Cinnamon Air took wing on Thursday from the water aerodrome opened at the Water’s Edge, Battaramulla with the participation of Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
The carrier is a joint venture between MMBL Leisure Holdings, John Keells and Phoenix Ventures and would be an addition to the tourism and transport infrastructure of the country, Cinnamon Air Chairman Ajith Gunawardene stated. It is owned and operated by Saffron Aviation and a BOI approved venture.
Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa opens latest domestic airline operation.
He noted that they would operate with two Cessna 208and one Cessna 208 B aircraft from a domestic terminal at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) at its new hangar and would fly on both scheduled and charter bookings.
Initially, the carrier would fly daily from BIA to Koggala, Dickwella and back serving tourists destinations in the south like Galle, Koggala, Weligama, Mirissa, Dickwella and Tangalle.
Later, they would also fly out to Polgolla in Kandy via Colombo providing customers arriving at the airport an option to travel to or from Kandy in under 30 minutes.
Scheduled services from BIA to Sigiriya, Batticaloa and Trincomalee would be rolled out in the succeeding weeks as Cinnamon Air augments its fleet with a wheeled Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan aircraft.
It would also offer charter services to individuals and groups to all airports and approved water aerodromes in the country including Nuwara Eliya, Arugam Bay, Mattala, Tissamaharama, Jaffna, Anuradhapura, Vavuniya, Victoria (Digana) and Bentota.
SriLankan Airlines Chairman Nishantha Wickremesinghe addressing the gathering stated that the air taxis would serve and add value to the SriLankan Airlines network from its high yielding tourist generating markets.
The national carrier would engage in a codeshare partnership with Cinnamon Air and would market the domestic carrier for use by its passengers, he said.
Following a draw at the event, five passengers from the invitees were picked by Mr. Rajapaksa to board the carrier for a 10 minute flight to experience the new aircraft and its facilities.
Follow @timesonlinelk
comments powered by Disqus