SriLankan Airlines launches operations in ‘spring city’ in China
There had been a massive increase in tourists from China to Sri Lanka in 2014, with the country recording 117,766 in January-November, up by 137.6 per cent from the 2013 period figures when compared with 9,000 in 2011 and the plan now is to increase this number by five-fold with the launch of SriLankan Airlines flights to Kunming in Southwest China, officials say.
Addressing the media at a SriLankan Airlines launch event in Kunming last Tuesday, Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to China Ranjith Uyangoda said this launch to Kunming is a historic occasion and an important development in terms of SriLankan Airlines’ operations to China. He told the Business Times on the sidelines of the briefing that promoting this destination is important as it will fetch heavy traffic – especially as Kunming in Yunnan Province is the closest in terms of a Chinese destination to Sri Lanka.
“Yunnan has a rapidly growing middle class who are discerning travellers,” he said, adding that in recent years, Kunming’s transport links to Southeast Asia and elsewhere, particularly its air links, have been steadily expanding. He said that Kunming as the fifth destination by SriLankan Airlines in China will bring the country’s Chinese tourist target of 275,000 (in two years) that much closer. This city is well known as the ‘spring city’ in China. Beijing, Shanghai, Canton and Hong Kong are the other places that SriLankan operates to in China.
SriLankan Airlines’ inaugural flight to Kunming took off from Colombo on December 1.
Kapila Chandrasena, CEO SriLankan told the Business Times just before the flight from Colombo took off that the airline has plans to launch flights to other Chinese destinations as well.
“China is very much part of the long term strategy of SriLankan to evolve its network. In addition to our scheduled operations to China, SriLankan currently operates a weekly charter flight to Chongqing which will continue till mid-December until we resume operations in January next year.”
This addition of a new destination will benefit the passengers who are seeking onward connections to Middle East, India and the Maldives.
SriLankan operates three weekly flights from Kunming on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The flights departing from Colombo will be on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
SriLankan Airlines Head of Worldwide Sales Lal Perera told the media that the successful operations to the other destinations in China had provided SriLankan the impetus to launch direct operations to and from Kunming.
“We now have 18 flights a week between Sri Lanka and China and these flights also have immediate connections to Male, offering dual destinations on one route, in addition to immediate connections to South India. We also have connections from China to all destinations in Europe, Middle East and India in 12 hours,” he added.