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SriLankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka, will be establishing its presence in Australia with daily non-stop services to Melbourne commencing October. The airline will be operating Airbus 330-200 aircraft on the route.
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. The non-stop services will also facilitate passengers from the Middle East and South Asia seeking onward connectivity via Colombo to/from Australia.
’Suren Ratwatte, Chief Executive Officer, SriLankan Airlines, 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 optimising 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 will fulfil 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.”
Siva Ramachandran, Chief Commercial Officer, SriLankan Airlines, said, “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.”
Bryce Hutchesson, Australia’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, 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.
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.”
Source: travelnewsdigest.in