Coimbatore to Colombo flight service started
The Sri Lankan Airlines on Monday commenced its direct flight service between Coimbatore and Colombo.Chandana Desilva, Head of Corporate Communications, and Manoj Gunawardena, Head of Worldwide Passenger Sales, Sri Lankan Airlines, told reporters that Coimbatore became the 12th destination for the airline in India.Mayoni Desilva, Manager, Coimbatore, Senaka Fernando, Regional Manager for Sri Lanka (in charge of India and Maldives), S.K. Mittal, Executive Director, Translanka Air Travels, and Mohan Meegolla, Manager for Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were also present.Sri Lankan was operating 15 services to Chennai, 14 to Mumbai, 13 to Thiruvananthapuram, 11 to Kochi, 10 to Tiruchirapalli, eight to Kozhikode, daily to New Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore and three services to Goa.The flights from India always enjoyed an average of 77 per cent occupancy. Sri Lankan had initially planned three services a week on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays and it would be one hour and 10 minutes flight from Coimbatore. An additional service a week on Fridays would begin from November 23. It also had plans to increase one more service to Tiruchi.
In the latest air service agreement, Sri Lankan had options for flying to a number of tier two cities in India and it was immediately looking at commencing services to Mangalore and Madurai.On the issue of operating dedicated cargo services to Coimbatore, Mr.Chandana Desilva said that initially the belly area in the passenger aircraft would be used for taking cargo and if there was demand for a dedicated cargo service it would be introduced subsequently.The cargo service operated between Colombo and Coimbatore was withdrawn despite good patronage since the aircraft was taken on lease.When asked whether the ethnic strife in the Island nation had affected the business prospects of the airline in any manner, Mr.Manoj Gunawardena said that it only affected the leisure travel business segment.
