SriLankan begins flights to Jeddah

Mohammed Rasooldeen in Riyadh

SAUDI ARABIA: SriLankan Airlines is to operate two flights a week to Jeddah from Colombo from March 27, according to a Code Share Agreement between the airlines and Saudi Arabian Airlines, Tuesday.

The agreement was signed by the airlines’ Regional Manager Middle East, Mohamed Fazeel and Riza Yusoof, Country Manager For Saudi Arabia with their Saudi counterparts.

The new service will operate from Jeddah on Tuesdays and Fridays which would bring the total flights from Colombo to Kingdom to seven. Currently , the airline operates two flights from Riyadh on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and three from Dammam on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“The Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah will make the airline its 51st global destination ,” SriLankan Airlines, Regional Manager Middle East, Mohamed Fazeel told Arab News.

“We are continuously looking for new opportunities to enhance our service and adding new destinations and increasing frequencies is a vital component,” he added.

He pointed out that Jeddah, considered the commercial hub of Saudi Arabia, is SriLankan Airlines’ third destination in the Kingdom and the ninth in SriLankan Airlines’ Middle East route map.

“Over 500,000 Sri Lankans’ are estimated to be working and living in the Kingdom, with a significant number of them in Jeddah. We are confident our new service will greatly enhance travel between Colombo and Jeddah,” SriLankan Airlines’ Head of Worldwide Passenger Sales, Manoj Gunewardene said.

Sri Lankan Ambassador A M J Sadiq said : “The proposed regular flight operations would be a dream-come-true to the large Sri Lankan expatriate community in the Western region of the Kingdom, who have long yearned for this service.”

Jeddah is also the principal gateway to Makkah, the holiest city of Islam, which able-bodied Muslims are required to visit at least once in a lifetime, to perform the Haj pilgrimage. The holy city attracts between two to three million visitors annually.

SriLankan Airlines in 2006 expanded its services to the Middle East, increasing frequencies to a number of destinations including Dubai and Doha, in a strategy to offer greater convenience for passengers travelling through its Colombo hub.