The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : SriLankan Airlines plans to be long-haul carrier

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 11, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

SriLankan Airlines plans to be long-haul carrier

T.S. Shankar

It will link Australia, South Africa next year

CHENNAI: SriLankan Airlines is focussing on repositioning itself as a long-haul carrier from being a point-to-point airline, Nadarajah Prabaharan, Regional Manager, Sri Lanka and Indian Sub-Continent, said on Wednesday.

Mr. Prabaharan, who is on an official visit to Chennai, told The Hindu that the airline operated 85 weekly services linking nine destinations.

"For SriLankan Airlines, India has always been an important market, and over 15-20 per cent of the revenue comes from the Indian route network." Chennai was well connected by twice-daily services; on a particular day of the week, three flights were being operated.

Marketing strategy

The new marketing strategy was based on the explosion of capacity offered not only to Indian destinations but also to the east and west global destinations.

The airline had four Airbus-340s, six Airbus-330s, five Airbus-320s, and two Cessnas. Mr. Prabaharan said the airline would link Australia and South Africa next year.

The decision to provide "visa on arrival" in Colombo had given a boost to the bid to attract more global tourists. "We did not have major impact of the opening of the private airlines sector by the Indian Government to fly to Colombo."

Maximum number

of flights

Mohan de S Meegolle, Manager, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, said SriLankan Airlines had the maximum number of flights to India, linking New Delhi, Mumbai, Kozhikode, Kochi, Thiruvanthapuram, Tiruchi, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

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