SriLankan Airlines flies to new destinations in Asia-West Asia
View(s):SriLankan Airlines has announced flights to 11 new destinations in the Asia-West Asia region which it says is one of the fastest growing travel markets in the world.
However all the destinations – Lahore-Pakistan, Jakarta- Indonesia, Dhaka-Bangladesh, Muscat – Oman, Bahrain, Seychelles, and Kolkata, Madurai, Varanasi and Bodh Gaya in India were those operated by the airline’s budget carrier Mihin Lanka which is being scrapped from October 31 to rein in burgeoning costs and a huge deficit at the national carrier.
A new destination, Gan island in the Maldives, was announced last week with flight four weekly flights starting on December 1, the airline said on Sunday.  Most of Mihin Lanka 300-staff would be absorbed to SriLankan Airlines while two of its four aircraft will be inducted into the SriLankan fleet. The other two whose leases are ending will be returned to the lessor.
The airline said the Asia-Middle East region generated over 923,000 visitors to Sri Lanka’s total 1.79 million tourist arrivals in 2015. The 11 new destinations include routes which generate business travel, leisure travel, labour traffic, pilgrim traffic and passengers in transit to and from SriLankan’s global route network.
The addition of Kolkata, Madurai, Bodh Gaya and Varanasi will make SriLankan Airlines the foreign airline with the largest network in India, 11 cities with 106 flights per week, increasing from its present 88 flights to seven cities.
Services to the Pakistani city of Lahore commenced on September 27 with a thrice-weekly frequency. From October 30 flights began to Jakarta (4 flights), Dhaka (daily), Madurai (daily), Muscat (5 flights) and Kolkata (3 flights) while on October 31 flights will begin to Bahrain (5 flights), Seychelles (4 flights), Varanasi (2 flights) and Bodh Gaya. Gan Island (4 flights) bringing the total number of        destinations to 102 in 47 countries.