Lankan expands operations to Bahrain

SriLankan Airlines is to expand its operations to Bahrain by increasing its seat capacity by more than 60 per cent.

The airline will operate its new wide bodied A330 aircraft three days a week, starting on March 27, said sales manager, Bahrain Dammika Kulatunge.

SriLankan now operates a 120-seater A320 on Tuesdays and Sundays and a 294-seater A330 on Thursdays, via Doha, on the Bahrain-Colombo sector.

"By changing the type of aircraft, we can increase the capacity out of Bahrain by more than 60pc," Kulatunge said.

"We are also changing the days of operations to Sunday, Tuesday and Friday, with flights leaving Bahrain on all days at 7.30pm." Mr Kulatunge said all the flights to Colombo would be operated via Abu Dhabi.

"We have been granted traffic rights to take passengers from Bahrain to Abu Dhabi and back," he revealed.

"It will prove a boon to a large number of Bahrainis currently working in Abu Dhabi."

Gulf Air will stop operations to Colombo, starting on March 24. "The increase in our seat capacity will enable us to meet the demand of the Sri Lankan community in Bahrain," Mr Kulatunge said.

"The majority of our passengers, however, are Indian nationals for whom we offer convenient connections out of Colombo to various Indian cities."

"Ten travel agents and tour operators from Bahrain have just returned after a tour of Sri Lanka.

"SriLankan Holidays have designed special packages which have attracted many passengers from Bahrain.

"One of the attractions of the package is the SriLanka Air Taxi, which uses amphibious aircraft to take tourists to several local destinations."