Srilankan open to tie-ups with regional airlines

Even as regional airlines begin to take wings in India, Srilankan, the Lankan airline, has said that it is open to forge alliances with such airlines as they emerge.

business philosophy

“It, however, depends on the business philosophy of such airlines,” Mr Manoj Gunawardena, Head Worldwide Passenger Sales of Srilankan, told Business Line.

The business philosophy of some low-cost carriers was offering point-to-point services, he said.

Srilankan had a code-sharing agreement with Indian and interline arrangement with Jet Airways.

Mr Gunawardena was here in connection with the roadshow organised by Sri Lanka Convention Bureau (SLCB) on Tuesday to sell MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions) offerings.

Mr Gunawardena said India contributed about 15 per cent to the airline’s turnover.

Route expansion

On route expansion to India, he said the airline had requested for permissions to double the frequency to Delhi and Bangalore. Besides, it was also targeting tier-II cities, with a focus on the South.

The airline, which operates 95 flights a week to various Indian destinations, was likely to cross the 100-mark by the year-end.

In-bound tourism

Stating that the airline believed in encouraging in-bound tourism to various destinations in India, he said the company was in talks with Karnataka and Goa governments to support their tourism promotion activities.

“At present, we have such broad-based agreements with India Tourism, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala Tourism departments,” Mr Gunawardena said.

Delegation

Meanwhile, a 40-member SLCB delegation would tour major Indian cities, offering special packages to corporates with a view to attracting them to meet their MICE needs in Sri Lanka.

The size of the Indian outbound MICE market was expected to be over eight lakh in a total outbound traffic of nine million.

Mr Prema Cooray, Chairman of SLCB, said his country targeted to capture at least 10 per cent of this outbound MICE business.