E-tickets by single phone call:

Emirates launches ‘Dial-a-Ticket’ in Sri Lanka

AN AIRLINE ticket for travel on Emirates is just a telephone call away as a result of a super-convenient new facility launched in Sri Lanka by the award-winning Dubai-based international airline.

Effective September 1st, travellers out of Colombo may make their reservations and purchase their tickets over the telephone, provided they have a valid credit card, from the comfort of their homes or offices.

This ‘Dial-a-Ticket’ (D-a-T) facility completely takes away the need to visit the Emirates office or a travel agent, or to make bookings on-line, and will be particularly useful to people who live outside Colombo and those who need to travel overseas at short notice.

The procedure is minimal: the customer calls Emirates Reservations and requests a booking and provides his or her credit card details over the phone. Authorisation for the transaction is obtained instantly and an e-ticket is issued. A copy of the e-ticket is then emailed or faxed to the customer.

“This is possibly the quickest method to buy an airline ticket,” Emirates Sales Manager Devika Ellepola said. “It is simple, safe and convenient and can be used by virtually anyone who has a credit card and an email address or access to a fax machine.”

“Our objective is to make buying an air ticket as convenient as possible to the traveller, and this facility is just one more step in that direction,” she said.

Dial-a-Ticket is targeted at travellers who are in areas where travel agencies are not easily accessible, those experiencing Internet difficulties or who have time constraints, and also eliminates the need to carry cash to pay for tickets.

The facility is available for travel to Emirates on-line destinations on Emirates operated flights only. It cannot be used to make purchase tickets for travel by third parties, which means that the person paying should be in the travelling party.

Emirates has received more than 300 international awards in recognition of its efforts to provide unsurpassed levels of customer service.

From Colombo, the airline operates 17 flights a week to Dubai and four flights a week to Singapore and Jakarta, offering convenient connections to 93 cities in 59 countries in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Africa, the Indian subcontinent and Asia-Pacific.

SriLankan Cargo, a leap forward on exports

BRIDGING the distance between Sri Lanka’s produce exporters and a store shelf in the global market, SriLankan Cargo is committed to support growth in the industry.

Sri Lanka’s fruit, vegetable, cut flower and fisheries product exports jumped a massive 34 percent in the first three months of 2007 over the same period a year before.

Combined export proceeds from the four sectors topped Rs. 5.3 billion in the quarter, up from about Rs. 4 billion in 2006.

SriLankan Cargo carries 60 per cent of Sri Lanka’s perishable cargo to over 51 destinations in 28 countries, including to the Maldives and 10 key cities in India.

Head of Cargo at SriLankan Airlines, Nalin Rodrigo says, “we have had a firm understanding with the local fruit, flower and vegetable growers in a very interdependent business.”

“Perishable cargo exporters, including the smaller exporters have been enjoying extremely preferential rates. Tariffs have also been maintained at the same levels for over a decade and the fuel surcharge adjustments have been extremely moderate and far below the level of fluctuation.”

A number of other specialized services are also available for perishable cargo exporters, including processing, cold storage facilities from the airport upto the final point of delivery.

Perishable exporters cater to two main markets, Male and the Gulf region. Vegetable, fruits and flowers are exported in bulk to the top resorts in Male.

In the Gulf, perishables are sold to supermarket chains and caterers.

The boom in the region’s construction sector has increased the demand for perishable cargo and other material, pushing up the region’s demand for air freight services to 10.5 percent by May 2007.

Other significant markets include the EU for plants and cut foliage, while fresh fish exports dominate the Far East routes.

SriLankan Cargo has met the increasing demand for air freight service by redesigning the palates to gain over 15 percent more carrying capacity.

The strong growth from the East Asian bloc is also drawing on SriLankan Cargo’s strength in the South Asian region.

As the cargo hub of the India Ocean, Colombo is placed strategically to carry all types of cargo and perishables in particular reaching destinations within an hour to four hours.

“The ‘Hub in the Ocean” is currently operating at near capacity. We are also negotiating with Airport officials to utilize a brand new purpose built cargo warehousing facility. If negotiations are successful our capacity will double.”

For the fourth consecutive year, SriLankan Cargo also set a new record for handling of freight at Bandaranaike International Airport in 2006 with a total of 167,289 metric tonnes, an increase of 4.48 percent over the previous calendar year.

SriLankan Cargo has positioned Colombo as the ‘Hub in the Ocean’ linking the fast-growing Indian economy with the rest of the world, both for exports and imports.

SriLankan is the largest foreign carrier into India, with 94 flights to 10 Indian cities - New Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Madras, Trichy, Trivandrum, Calicut, Goa and Kochi - flying on a daily or more frequent basis to each of them except for Goa, where services were launched just last year.

Qatar Airways Cargo introduces third aircraft into freighter fleet

QATAR Airways Cargo has expanded its international operations with the introduction of a third aircraft into its freighter fleet and the launch of seven new cargo-only destinations.

The Airbus A300-600F took to the skies following its conversion from a passenger to a cargo aircraft. Earlier this year, Qatar Airways Cargo introduced its second freighter as part of a long-term strategy to develop an international network of cargo flights.

With the addition of the third freighter, Qatar Airways Cargo has significantly increased the number of destinations it serves worldwide from 9 to 16 cities.

During the past six months alone, the freighter network has been transformed radically with new destinations and a new-look cargo warehouse at Doha International Airport.

The new destinations are Algiers, Tunis, Milan, Istanbul, Karachi, Colombo and Johor Bahru in Malaysia. They supplement other destinations already in the network - Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Khartoum, Dubai, Nairobi, Bangalore, Chennai, Lahore and Dhaka.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said that cargo represented a vital component of the airline’s global operations.

“We have a clear strategy to develop our passenger side of the business to key business and leisure destinations worldwide. Similarly, we are building our cargo operation to key markets around the world using Doha as a key hub,” he said.

“We will, over the next two years increase our cargo operation further as more A300 freighters are introduced and the first of our two new Boeing 777 freighters are delivered. These are scheduled for delivery from Summer 2009.”