| Hyderabad
will be SriLankan Airlines’ ninth destination in India
when services begin on February 22, 2004.
SriLankan is launching services to Hyderabad in a bid to promote
Sri Lanka and India as twin destination holiday centres around
its route network.
The airline will offer flights between Colombo and Hyderabad
every Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Says SriLankan’s Head of Commercial G T Jeyaseelan:
“In the post 9/11 scenario, SriLankan is one airline
that has been performing well. In the last two years our average
seat factor has been 75%. We thus plan to aggressively market
our homebase Sri Lanka and neighbouring India as twin holiday
destinations. Each offers tremendous value for money and has
its own unique attractions: while India offers the richness
of a whole sub-continent, SriLanka offers the rarity of a
small island rich in variety. The two complement each other
beautifully.”
Jeyaseelan says that the airline will promote Sri Lanka in
Andhra Pradesh. Apart from promoting India as a tourist destination,
SriLankan will also promote Hyderabad in particular around
its route network.
India and Sri Lanka in 2003 liberalized air services between
their two countries after a meeting of their Prime Ministers
in New Delhi. Under this agreement there will be increased
air access between the two countries.
Hyderabad, the capital of the southern India state of Andhra
Pradesh is another magical Indian city, offering an eclectic
mix of the hi-tech and ancient. Hyderabad is now India’s
IT centre. Cyberabad, 15 kilometres off Hyderabad is india’s
‘most wired city’ and home to such firms as Microsoft
and Oracle.
Among the old, there’s a variety to view - Charminar
(the Arc de Triomphe of the East), Golconda Fort, Salar Jung
and the Nizam’s Silver Jubilee Museum. Cuisine-wise,
the variety is no less rich: spicy kebabs, rotis and the all-time
favourite - biriyani.
India is the country to which SriLankan has the most number
of weekly services. Currently SriLankan offers nearly 60 flights
per week to India with daily services to New Delhi, Mumbai,
Chennai, Trichy and Trivandrum and soon, Bangalore.
In 2003 India was the country with the second highest number
of visitors to Sri Lanka. In India, SriLankan Airlines is
the foreign carrier with the most number of flights into the
country.
SriLankan will soon be adding an Airbus A320 to its fleet
for the flights to India that it plans to deploy. The rest
of the fleet comprise five A340s, four A330s and three A320s,
two AN12 freighters and one Cessna Caravan float plane.
The airline plans to offer daily frequencies to all its destinations
in the near future. In 2004, SriLankan plans to resume services
to Rome and launch flights to Beijing.
The airline’s two freighters operate a regional service
to South and South East Asia.
SriLankan has been winning a string of international aviation
awards in recent times which prove that it is now one of Asia’s
leading airlines. In the last three years (2001, 2002 and
2003), SriLankan has been voted Best Airline in Central Asia
by UK’s Skytrax Research which each year conducts the
largest passenger survey in the airline industry. In 2001,
this was the airline’s first major accolade since repositioning
its services a world-class carrier. The consecutive victory
in 2002 affirms consistency in world-class service and is
a seal of approval from customers of same.
SriLankan is also First Runner Up for Skytrax Best Cabin Staff
award for 2003 and was also voted for the same year by Skytrax
as having the friendliest cabin crew.
In 2003, SriLankan won another prestigious accolade - Best
Inflight Entertainment (for a fleet size of 20 or less) at
the annual World Airline Entertainment Association’s
Avion awards in the USA.
Media Relations Section
Corporate Communications Department
SriLankan Airlines Limited
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