Sri Lanka Opens Air Travel to Russia and Doubles Flights to China
Asian Tribune | Aug. 23, 2011
Russian Transport Minister Mr. Igor Levitin has announced that it will open a direct air route to Sri Lanka and it has completed interdepartmental coordination of the Air Travel Agreement with Sri Lanka. He has that the agreements between the two aviation authorities make it possible to start regular flights between Moscow and Colombo, and the Russian Airlines Aeroflot and the Sri Lankan Airlines have the right to two regular flights per week on the Colombo-Dubai-Moscow route.
The Sri Lanka has already announced that Sri Lankan Airlines had scheduled the first flight to Moscow for September 17. It is unknown yet when Aeroflot may start selling tickets to Colombo.
Agency reports from Moscow said that more than 3,000 passengers went to and from Sri Lanka last year.
Meanwhile, the SriLankan Airlines has announced that it is doubling flights to China, Hong Kong, Beijing, Canton, Shanghai over the next two years and the booming sector is slated to bring up to 15 percent of the airlines' revenue. The airline now flies ten times a week to China (including Hong Kong) which will be increased to 13 this year and 21 over the next two years.
SriLankan is flying to China via Bangkok and taking Chinese tourists to Bangkok, Maldives and Colombo. The Airlines expect to operate direct flights after a period of time.
The Airline is planning to boost its fleet to 28 from the current 19 over the next four years in a bid to make airline operations profitable. It has been suffering losses at group level in recent years and the government recently committed US$500 million to recapitalize it over the next five years.