Sri Lankan Airlines expands Gulf links

A substantial increase in inbound traffic, especially from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, has prompted Sri Lankan Airlines to almost double its frequency to Colombo from destinations in the region. "We have seen an almost 43.2 per cent increase in passengers coming into Colombo from the GCC states," Lal Perera, Sri Lankan Airlines regional manager for the Middle East and Africa, said this week. Competition He said so far this year to the end of November, 85,990 people visited Sri Lanka from the GCC. "We expect the number to go up to 95,000 or beyond by the end of this year," he said. In 2010, 60,109 people from the GCC visited Sri Lanka. He added the airline had decided to double its frequency of flights from Muscat to Colombo. "We had two flights a week but now we will operate four flights a week on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays," he said, adding there could be a further increase in flights in the future. "We have increased flights from Doha to Col-ombo from five to seven in a week," he said. The airline will also operate daily flights from Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Kuwait. "We are trying to increase the number of flights to five between Colombo and Riyadh and Jeddah." He added in the last five years, the fares to Colombo from GCC states had dropped by almost 40-50 per cent. "The competition between airlines has benefited passengers," he said.