SriLankan Airlines will resume flights to Australia, operating daily, non-stop services to Melbourne from October 29 this year, a decision that was exclusively reported in the Business Times on May 7.
In a media release at the weekend, the national carrier said the non-stop services will also facilitate passengers from the Middle East and South Asia seeking onward connectivity via Colombo to/from Australia. This service is being resumed after the national carrier suspended services in August 2001.
Australia is home to one of the largest Sri Lankan expatriate communities, many of whom reside in and around Melbourne, the capital of Australia’s ‘Garden State’, Victoria. This factor, together with the tremendous potential for business travel and Victoria’s growing student population convinced the airline to plan for the launch of non-stop daily services to Melbourne, the release said.
The airline will be operating Airbus 330-200 aircraft on the route. SriLankan Airlines’ Chief Commercial Officer, Siva Ramachandran said, “Despite the absence of direct connections, we have witnessed a steady increase in passengers travelling between Colombo and Melbourne via various Asian connecting points such as Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Our direct services will give us a definite advantage as SriLankan is the only carrier that is able to offer connectivity of this nature at this time. With the launch of the new services, SriLankan Airlines’ passengers will also have the choice of flying to other Australian cities such as Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide as well as Auckland, New Zealand”. - ENDS -
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