SriLankan Airlines flies to 11 new destinations

SriLankan Airlines has announced the launching of 11 new destinations focusing on the Asia-Middle East region.

SriLanka's flag carrier will operate direct flights from Colombo to 11 new destinations namely Lahore,
Pakistan, Jakarta, Indonesia, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Muscat, Oman, Kolkata, Madurai, Varanasi
& Bodh Gaya India, Bahrain, Seychelles and Gan, Maldives.

“We have realigned our strategic focus to Asia, from the Middle East to the Far East, as we
see excellent opportunities in this high-growth region. We are confident that the linking of so
many Asian cities will produce a travel network which will be extremely convenient for our
passengers and profitable for the airline, Ajith Dias, Chairman of SriLankan Airlines said in a statement.

The Asia-Middle East region generated 923,338 visitors to Sri Lanka of the total 1,798,380
visitors in 2015, according to Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority statistics.

The 11new destinations include routes which generate business travelers, leisure travelers, labour
traffic, pilgrim traffic and passengers in transit to and from SriLankan’s global route network.

“Travelers throughout the Asia-Middle East region will now be able to enjoy the superb levels of service on SriLankan Airlines. We have modernized our product with brand new A330-300 aircraft which have already been added to our fleet, and will soon be joined by new A320neo and A321neo
aircraft. So we treat our passengers to comfortable seating, state of the art entertainment systems, excellent in-flight cuisine, and flight attendants famed for their warmth and caring," Captain Suren Ratwatte, CEO of SriLankan Airlines said.

The addition of Kolkata, Madurai, Bodh Gaya and Varanasi will make SriLankan Airlines the foreign airline with the largest network in India, one of the world’s largest travel markets, covering 11 cities with 106 flights per week, increasing from its present 88 flights to seven cities.

Sri Lanka’s award-winning carrier was just named “Best Full Service Airline in Central and South Asia” at the Future Travel Experience Asia Awards 2016 in Singapore for the second consecutive year.

SriLankan, which has for many years been the largest airline operation to the Maldives through its flights to the capital, Male, will become the only airline operating to Gan island in the southern part of the island chain.

Services to the Pakistani city of Lahore commenced on 27th September with a thrice-weekly
frequency; while on 30th October services will be launched to Jakarta (4 flights), Dhaka (daily), Madurai (daily), Muscat (5 flights) and Kolkata (3 flights), and on the following day (31st October) to Bahrain (5 flights), Seychelles (4 flights), Varanasi (2 flights) and Bodh Gaya. Gan Island (4 flights) in the Maldives will join SriLankan’s network on 1st December, bringing the total number of destinations to 102 in 47 countries.