SriLankan popular airline among PATA travel buyers

by Irangika Range

SriLankan Airlines has always been a preferred airline of travellers to Sri Lanka and it has been proved by larger responses which were received from international travel buyers at the PATA Travel Mart which was held in Malaysia recently, Country Manager of SriLankan Airlines in Malaysia Prasanna Subasinghe speaking to Daily News at the PATA Travel Mart in Kuala Lumpur Convention Center said.

"SriLankan's lucrative travel packages with global reach and world class in-flight service provides a special travel experience with an array of travel services that exceed customers' expectations," Subasinghe said.

SriLankan Airlines is a very strong member of the PATA Travel Mart since it was listed at the PATA and responses of each year from world's top class buyers were very positive and very encouraging.

There were inquiries from China for their packages and this project is now in the process which would commence by end of this October. SriLankan has an excellent network operating 12 services from Kuala Lumpur to Colombo and this service would expand in the near future as part of a strategy to increase connectivity, catering to the present and future needs of our customers.

"We participated in the MATTA (Malaysia Association of Travel and Tour Agents) holidays which was held in Malaysia recently. There was huge demand for Sri Lankan packages and we could sell over 3000 packages at the event," he said.

Sri Lankan offers diversified tour packages to meet and fulfill customers' expectations. We offer additional and especial packages through over 4000 of Malaysian travel agents focusing more Malaysian arrivals to Sri Lanka. SriLankan also has adventure and exotica holiday packages in conjunction with SriLankan Airlines tickets.

Reputable handling agents, appointed by SriLankan Airlines will make all land arrangements for the SriLankan adventure and exotica programmes on behalf of SriLankan Airlines. SriLankan views the MICE industry as a strategically important for business. Their efforts are mainly targeted at conference and incentive travel organisers for whom they offer a customised array of services.

The route network covers most of Asia and the main European centers and MICE travel programmes offer products and services that help plan and manage air travel for groups of all sizes sharing a common destination and for individuals attending meetings or conventions.

SriLankan Airline's ability to offer convenient connections and to get delegates to events economically and efficiently has made Central Asia's best airline popular among other MKF destinations like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Jakarta.

SriLankan is recognised as one of Asia's leading airlines. Although it has attested as a world class airline among customers, we will continue our advertising campaigns to popularise our products and service all over the world.

"We have done PR campaigns to promote our national carrier in Malaysia. We did two-month TV advertising campaign through famous TV channels including TV3 and TV8 in Malaysia. It was very successful and responses from Malaysians are very positive," Subasinghe said.