THE planned new SriLankan Airlines flights to the Indian state of Goa will greatly benefit travellers in the Middle East, a spokesman said.
The airline will add Goa to its list of global destinations from October 2006. The popular Indian coastal region will be the airline’s 10th destination in India and its 50th global destination.
Peter Hill, chief executive officer of SriLankan Airlines, said: “We have been steadily expanding our presence in India as we are acutely aware of the growing importance and opportunities of the travel market both inbound and out. The new route to Goa is an exciting addition with excellent commercial prospects.”
The twice-weekly flights are scheduled for Mondays and Saturdays available from all Sri Lankan destinations to Colombo with a connecting flight to Goa.
Barry Brown, chief commercial officer, said: “As always, we will continue to explore further opportunities by increasing services to India. We are currently considering launching services to more cities, as well as increasing the frequency of flights to existing destinations.”
Bilateral travel between India and Sri Lanka is at an all-time high with Indians being among the most frequent visitors to Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans being the third largest group of visitors to India, after the US and Britain.
SriLankan is the largest foreign carrier operating in India, with nearly 100 weekly flights to New Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Madras, Trichy, Trivandrum, Calicut, and Kochi.
To promote this new destination SriLankan Airlines is offering Skywards members up to 50 percent off on regular mileage for reward tickets to the coastal resort from the launch date (on October 30) until December 10, 2006.
The Skywards offer is open to members worldwide. Tickets to Goa can be booked from SriLankan’s destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Sri Lanka, the Far East and Japan.