SriLankan Cargo continued towards its goal of making Colombo the Hub of the Indian Ocean, with the launch of a dedicated freighter service from Mumbai to Colombo on May 18, 2003.

SriLankan Airlines carries garments, medicines and spare parts on this service from Mumbai to Colombo.

“This expansion of our services is in keeping with SriLankan Cargo’s concept of making Colombo the cargo hub of the Indian Ocean, for transshipments between South Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South East Asia and the Far East,” said Nalin Rodrigo, Senior Manager Cargo, SriLankan Airlines.

Transshipment cargo refers to cargo passing through any point between origin and destination.

SriLankan Cargo already has a wide network serving many cities throughout South Asia, with dedicated freighter services to Bangalore thrice a week, Male thrice a week, Chennai twice a week, and weekly flights to Trivandrum, Karachi and Gan Island.

The dedicated freighter services are in addition to SriLankan’s regular flights to Madras, Trichy, Trivandrum, Bangalore, Bombay, New Delhi, Kochi and Gaya. Three of these services – to Bangalore, Kochi and Gaya – were launched within the last 12 months, and SriLankan Airlines will resume regular services to Karachi next month.

SriLankan serves Mumbai with a weekly Antonov AN12 flight every Monday. The AN12 is the airline’s dedicated freighter, which has been in operation since September 2000, and has a capacity of 17 tonnes.