SriLankan launches flights to Coimbatore

SriLankan Airlines will launch services to Coimbatore on October 29 making this South Indian city the airline’s 11th destination in India.

Coimbatore, sitting near the border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, provides an ideal gateway for travellers from East Kerala to fly to the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the Far East.

A major industrial city, Coimbatore is the second largest metropolis in Tamil Nadu.

The airline will initially operate four flights a week on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday using Airbus A320 aircraft. It already has services to three major cities in Kerala - Trivandrum, Kozhikode, and Kochi; and two in Tamil Nadu - Chennai (Madras) and Trichy.

New CEO for CTC

Mustanser Ali Khan was appointed Managing Director/CEO of Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC) with effect from September 24.

He takes over from Andrew O’Regan (MD/CEO since 2005), who has been appointed Managing Director of British American Tobacco Vietnam.

Khan comes with a diverse international career with British American Tobacco. He held the role of General Manager Solomon Islands Tobacco prior to joining CTC.

Previously he has worked as Operations Director with British American Tobacco Indonesia and Supply Chain Project Manager for British American Tobacco Asia Pacific based at KL Malaysia.

Hutch surpasses million mark

Hutchison Tele-communications Lanka (Pvt) Ltd (“Hutchison Telecom Lanka”) said the company had surpassed the one million customer milestone reflecting the continuous efforts to cater for customers’ mobile communications needs since the launch of GSM prepaid service under the brand ‘Hutch’ in 2004.

The milestone is a testament to the company’s highly focused approach on addressing customers’ genuine needs by introducing affordable tariffs, relevant value added services and reliable network coverage to the majority of the population.