Melbourne joins the Airline’s global
route network from October 2017
SriLankan Airlines, the National
Carrier of Sri Lanka and a member of the prestigious oneworld alliance,
will be establishing its presence in Australia with daily non-stop services to
Melbourne commencing October 29th this year.
Australia is home to one of the
largest Sri Lankan expatriate communities, many of whom reside in and around
Melbourne, the capital of Australia’s ‘Garden State’, Victoria. This factor,
together with the tremendous potential for business travel and Victoria’s
growing student population convinced the Airline to plan for the launch of
non-stop daily services to Melbourne.
The non-stop services will also facilitate
passengers from the Middle East and South Asia seeking onward connectivity via
Colombo to/from Australia.
SriLankan Airlines’ Chief Executive
Officer, Captain Suren Ratwatte said “Our presence in Australia cements the
long-standing relationship between our two countries. We recently celebrated
the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between our nations,
and the addition of Melbourne signifies our strategy of optimizing the
Airline’s network in line with our restructuring. This also means that we have
connected another continent to our global route map. On the other hand, given
the number of Sri Lankans residing in and around Victoria, we fulfill a long
felt need for a direct service. We are proud to welcome all the diverse
residents of Victoria who can now enjoy the direct connections when visiting
their friends and families throughout our network.”
The Airline will be operating Airbus
330-200 aircraft on the route, offering its passengers modern in-flight
comforts complemented with its award winning service and the world renowned Sri
Lankan warmth and hospitality.
The flight schedule is as follows;
From
|
To
|
Departure
|
Arrival
|
Days of operation
|
Colombo
|
Melbourne
|
2350 hrs (local time)
|
1525 hrs
(local time) |
Daily
|
Melbourne
|
Colombo
|
1655 hrs
(local time) |
2215 hrs
(local time) |
and Middle East. With the launch of the new
services, SriLankan Airlines’ passengers will also have the choice of flying to
other Australian cities such as Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide as well as Auckland,
New Zealand. SriLankan Airlines will continue to explore potential expansion
opportunities across its network in order to facilitate the envisaged growth in
business.”
Australia’s High Commissioner to Sri
Lanka, Mr. Bryce Hutchesson said, “We congratulate SriLankan Airlines on the
addition of a direct flight to Australia. Direct air connections
between countries stimulate two-way tourism, business, trade and
people-to-people exchange which are the core ingredients for a vibrant bilateral
relationship. We are seeing a growing number of Australians looking to
travel to Sri Lanka for tourism and business, and to reconnect with
family. And we welcome the growing number of Sri Lankans travelling to
Australia for education, business, to explore Australia’s culture and natural
wonders, and of course to catch up with family and friends.”
Widely known as “a city for all
seasons,” Melbourne offers the travellers a wide variety of historic and
natural attractions along with urban cityscapes preserving colonial
architecture. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, offers heritage, wildlife as well
as adventure sports and surfing hotspots for the adventurous Australian
traveller. Over the years, the two countries have shared a mutual passion--
cricket, which has inspired fans to travel the distance in support of their
respective home teams.
More importantly, Australia accounts
for one of the largest Sri Lankan communities living outside Sri Lanka, out of
which almost 50 per cent lives in and around Victoria, making Melbourne the
convenient terminus for their departures and arrivals.
For the convenience of travellers
seeking onward connectivity from its Colombo hub, SriLankan currently connects
over 10 Indian points with over 100 flights a week, which includes services
to/from Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Calcutta, Trivandrum, Tiruchirappalli,
Cochin, Mumbai and New Delhi. SriLankan will be adding Visakhapatnam,
Coimbatore and Hyderabad to its route network in July this year, further
expanding its presence in India.
The Airline’s Middle Eastern services include
over fifty weekly flights to/from nine Middle Eastern destinations, including
daily services out of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha, Riyadh, Muscat, Bahrain and
Kuwait. The Airline also offers its passengers the option of exploring popular
holiday destinations such as Seychelles and Maldives’ Male and Gan Island.
These operations will further
complement the existing double daily services offered by SriLankan Airlines
between Sri Lanka and Australia via Singapore and Kuala Lumpur with its
codeshare partners, Qantas and Malaysia Airlines.