Srilankan Airlines expands wings to Hyd

Taking advantage of the open skies policy of the Indian Government SriLankan Airlines' announced the commencement of weekly flights to Hyderabad. Hyderabad is SriLankan Airlines' ninth destination to India.

SriLankan Airlines will operate four-flights every week into Hyderabad and now offers flights between Colombo and Hyderabad every Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

In 2003 India had the second highest number of visitors to Sri Lanka. In India, Sri Lankan Airlines operates the maximum number of flights into the country. The airline plans to offer daily frequencies to all its destinations in the near future and also add Beijing to its route network this year.

Sri Lankan Airlines was earlier known as Air Lanka, when in 1998 the Sri Lankan government decided to privatise the state run organisation.

As part of the privatisation process 40 per cent of the equity in the airline was offered to the Dubai-based Emirates Airline. As part of the deal Emirates will undertake the management of the airline for a 10-year period.

Addressing a press conference in the city, SriLankan Airlines' head of commercial, G T Jeyaseelan said, "In the post 9/11 scenario, SriLankan Airlines is one airline that has been performing well. In the last two years our average seat factor has been 75 per cent."

Jeyaseelan said that the airline planned to promote Sri Lanka in Andhra Pradesh and will promote the capital city of Hyderabad in particular around its route network. India and Sri Lanka had in 2003 liberalised air services between the two countries, wherein it was agreed that there would be increased air access between the two neighbours.

SriLankan Airlines has the highest frequency of flights to India and it offers 60 flights per week to India with daily services to New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Tiruchirapally, Trivandrum and will soon start operations to Bangalore also. The airline is also slated to add a fourth Airbus A320 to its fleet for its operations to India.