SriLankan launches service to Milan

SriLankan Airlines launched its newest service to Milan on December 16, the second Italian city to be connected directly with Colombo.

The twice-weekly service to Italy's second largest city is expected to significantly increase travel between northern Italy and Sri Lanka, especially for tourism and also for the large Sri Lankan community in the region.

The new service will also be used by residents in the neighbouring regions of southern France and southern Switzerland.

Italy is a significant tourism market for Sri Lanka, and has generated over 100,000 visitors to the country in the last decade, averaging approximately 12,000 annually.

SriLankan Airlines already serves the Italian capital Rome with a twice-weekly service which serves the southern and central regions of the country.

The inaugural flight, which was fully booked, was welcomed with ceremony at Colombo's Bandaranaike International Airport.

Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka have increased rapidly in the last six months since the country's three-decade-old conflict ended, and SriLankan Airlines is in the forefront of marketing the island as a destination of choice.

The National Carrier has already begun marketing Sri Lanka's diverse attractions among the northern Italian tourism industry.

The direct flight to Colombo will also allow Italian travellers to catch rapid connections to popular tourist destinations in the Far East such as Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo.