SriLankan looks for more flights to Australia
SriLankan Airlines will be looking at increasing flight frequencies through codeshare arrangements on the Sri Lanka – Australia route, officials at the national carrier said on Tuesday.
In a bid to improve connectivity SriLankan Airlines will be looking at a codeshare option to increase flights to Australia from Colombo, the carrier’s Chief Marketing Officer G.T. Jayaseelan said in an interview with the Business Times.
He noted that currently they were in discussion with a number of OneWorld Alliance carriers in this regard.
At present, a majority of the traffic generated on this route was mainly the Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) category in addition to student and an increasing number of tourists, Mr. Jayaseelan explained.
Right now, Malaysian Airlines is engaged in an arrangement to carry traffic from C0lombo to Australia but with the carrier being on the network there would be an improvement in the service as well, it was pointed out.
The national carrier was engaged in talks with the Australian carrier and Cathay Pacific as well in this regard, Mr. Jayaseelan said.
SriLankan Airlines will be joining OneWorld Alliance on May 1, it was stated adding that this would ensure that they would be able to obtain the services of the other carriers on this network to increase their flight frequencies on this route.
SriLankan Airlines has been interested in increasing flights to this destination as a result of which they opened an office in Melbourne last year.
Sri Lanka’s aviation connections with Australia date back to the early 1950s when it’s national carrier, then Air Ceyl0n, flew to Sydney and Darwin.
A new air services agreement was signed between Sri Lanka and Australia in May 2007.