Sri Lankan Airlines increases frequencies by 40% for summer 2022
In anticipation of a busy summer 2022, Sri Lankan Airlines has increased the number of scheduled flights by 40% to match pre-pandemic levels and meet the growing demand for air travel as the industry continues to recover. Scheduled to commence with the start of the airline’s summer flight programme, these ramped up changes will come into effect across Sri Lankan’s online destinations network. Aimed at providing its customers greater flexibility, convenience and connectivity, the airline expects it to facilitate smoother operations as well.
India features prominently where the number of weekly flights to the neighbouring country will be doubled to exceed 100, to celebrate the recent reopening of their skies for commercial passenger flights after been closed for nearly two years. Other increases in flight frequency will include Gan Islands, Male (Maldives) and Lahore (Pakistan) which will see an extra flight each week.
Daily flights have already been introduced to Kuala Lumpur, while daily flights will be operated to Melbourne by May and to Bangkok and Jakarta by July of this year. Further, an additional weekly flight has been scheduled for Narita starting from July 2022. New destinations are also part of the plan and commercial passenger flights to Seoul, Korea are to be launched in May 2022. Weekly flights to Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Muscat and Seychelles will also be upped to pre-pandemic levels of operations. Plans are also afoot to gradually increase frequencies to selected destinations in the Far East and Oceania this summer.
The increase in operations is based on demand forecasts and is expected to generate increased revenues from traffic into and beyond Colombo through the airline’s extensive network. With nearly 85% of the airline’s revenue generated in foreign currency, Sri Lankan airlines is determined to not only contribute towards the island’s foreign currency reserves but to also play a major role in help restore and grow the Sri Lankan tourism industry to and beyond pre-COVID levels.
“Sri Lankan is steadily returning its commercial flight operations to normal as the recovery of global travel gathers momentum. We are complementing the operational growth with enhancements to our product and services including the onboard menu, the website and the launch of new destinations. We look forward to renewing our relationships with old friends and to introducing Sri Lankan hospitality to many new guests,” stated the national carrier’s Acting CEO Richard Nuttall.
Hospitality Sri Lanka
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