Dubai, 23 March 2005:  SriLankan Airlines is increasing flights from Dubai to Colombo, bringing the weekly total to 28 services a week including codeshare operations with Emirates.

This forms part of a three-phase development plan to boost traffic to and through Sri Lanka in the wake of the tsunami.

From March 27, SriLankan will inaugurate the first direct service between Colombo and New York, operated as a codeshare flight on a daily basis with partner Emirates via Dubai, and in the summer, Beijing will join the carrier's network with the launch of three weekly flights via Bangkok.

Elsewhere, SriLankan will again team up with Emirates to offer 33 weekly flights to Frankfurt, Munich and Dusseldorf, as well as 12 services a week to Paris and daily operations to Zurich, while the flagship route from Colombo to London will gain three additional frequencies bringing the total to 12, with a plan to up this to double daily in the near future.

In the Middle East and Indian sub-continent region, SriLankan will introduce daily flights from Colombo to Abu Dhabi this summer, using wide-bodied A330 aircraft, with four of the services continuing to Doha and three to Bahrain.

In addition, the airline is adding services to Kuwait and Dammam, with nine weekly flights to the former and three to the eastern province of Saudi Arabia.

-Ends-

Editors' notes
SriLankan Airlines was created in April 1998 when Air Lanka, was privatised following the establishment of a strategic partnership with Dubai-based Emirates Airline. The agreement saw Emirates take a 40 per cent shareholding in the company and undertake a 10-year management agreement, during which time SriLankan has been established as southern Asia's preferred international carrier.

Following its transformation, SriLankan has won a string of international aviation awards including Best Airline in Central Asia from UK's Skytrax Research for four years in a row, (2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004), underlining its new reputation as a world-class carrier.

In 2003, SriLankan was voted as having the friendliest cabin crew by Skytrax, and also won the award for Best In-flight Entertainment (for a fleet size of 20 or less) at the annual World Airline Entertainment Association's Avion awards in the USA.

Meanwhile, the airline's sky taxi service has revolutionised domestic air travel in Sri Lanka, offering transfers between the airport and Colombo and Kandy, Koggala, Bentota, Trincomalee, Anuradhapura and Hingurakgoda - flight times from Bandaranaika International Airport are just 30 minutes to each town except for Trincomalee, which is a 45-minute transfer. The network incorporate most major tourist sites, from the beach resorts on the west coast around Bentota and Galle (Koggala), as well as Polonnaruwa (Hingurakgoda), Anuradhapura, Kandy and Trincomalee. 

For further information:
For media enquiries: Kirstie Hepburn / Fiona Swaffield
Strategic Solutions for SriLankan Airlines in Arabia
Tel: +971 4 3915390,
email media@strategicsolutionsonline.com
 
For airline information: www.srilankan.aero
 
Holiday information: www.srilankan-holidays.com

© Press Release 2005