AVIATION

SriLankan to support tourism

Opens several new routes:

SriLankan Airlines is planning to support the country’s rapidly-growing tourism industry with a planned increase in worldwide flights.

This includes additional capacity to Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Rome, Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Karachi and many cities in India.

The national carrier’s aircraft fleet will be significantly expanded to cater to these operations, and its existing fleet modernised.

One wide-bodied Airbus A330-200 arrived in July, and two A320s are likely during late 2010.

The airline launched a far-reaching program earlier this year to ‘change the way we fly’, and the way our passengers experience travel.

SriLankan’s Worldwide Sales Head Mohamed Fazeel said SriLankan’s long-term plan for the next five years is being drawn up to support Sri Lanka’s tourism industry in particular and the nations economic growth in general.

“Our plan envisages almost a doubling of our fleet, and greatly increased capacity to most of our existing destinations,” he said.

“We are also continuously monitoring the market opportunities in a number of cities we currently do not operate and will be constantly evaluating the opportunities to commence direct services to these cities,” Fazeel said.

The airline on July 1 launched its new service to Shanghai, China’s largest city.

With the launch of the four weekly flights, SriLankan now serves three cities in China the others being Beijing and Hong Kong with a total of ten services, including seven to mainland China.

The flights to Shanghai operate via Bangkok on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

SriLankan’s global route network spans 49 cities in 31 countries, and currently operates nearly 150 flights per week from Colombo.

The airline last December launched services to Milan, which serves both the growing number of Italian tourists visiting Sri Lanka, and the Sri Lankan community in northern Italy and neighbouring regions.

Sri Lanka’s tourism arrivals increased by an impressive 48.4 percent in the first six months of 2010, with 278,652 tourists compared to 187,729 in the same period last year, according to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. This is well on course to exceed the 501,597 arrivals during the entire 2009.

Topping the list in the first half of 2010 was India with 55,138 (an increase of 78 percent), followed by the UK with 44,987 (+24 percent), and Germany in third place with 21,500 (+74 percent).

Other significant markets include the Maldives, France, Australia, Canada, USA, the Netherlands, Russia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Italy and Pakistan.

Brazil provides bright spot for depressed private jet sector

Brazil’s economic boom is providing much-needed support to the worldwide private jet sector, which was savaged by last year’s global downturn, manufacturers exhibiting their aircraft in Sao Paulo said Thursday.

Latin America’s powerhouse is helping to shake off a disastrous 2009 that saw sales of executive jets slump amid a fire sale of second-hand planes on the market and a rush by purchasing companies to cancel contracts.

“I think it’s going to be a slow recovery but it will be a recovery, because the demand is there. One of the reasons why we are here in Brazil is because this is a very, very strong market,” business jet maker Gulfstream President Joseph Lombardo.

He was speaking at the start of a three-day Latin American Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition event showcasing more than 50 executive jets from leading manufacturers including Gulfsteam of the United States, Canada’s Bombardier, France’s Dassault, and Brazil’s own Embraer. “The downturn was very hard,” eviscerating an industry that had been soaring before the crisis on corporate demand for small planes costing up to 60 million dollars, Lombardo said.

Before the crisis, in 2008, a total of 22 billion dollars worth of executive jets were sold.

Last year, that shrank to 17 billion dollars — and predictions are that the industry will not recover to pre-crisis levels for another five to seven years.

“We haven’t had the wave of cancelled contracts we had in 2009 in particular, but we still aren’t in a phase of a strong and real recovery except in some niches in certain markets, including the Brazilian market,” said France’s Dassault Falcon executive jet company head, Jean Rosenvallon.

He said that, with US and European buyers of small jets still being miserly, purchasers in the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — were the main sources of growth.

Dassault Falcon was the leader in the Brazilian market for executive jets costing more than 30 million dollars, Rosenvallon said.

Although saddled with a strong euro cost base that hurt competitivity against dollar-reliant rivals, Dassault Falcon was looking aggressively to push into the BRIC markets.

AFP

Emirates to launch second daily flights to Houston, LA

Emirates has underlined its commitment to the United States by announcing the launch of second daily flights to Los Angeles and Houston.

The airline which recorded a significant increase in revenue for this segment in 2009-10, will soon offer over 15,000 seats on 98 return flights per week to the United States. Starting October 31 for Los Angeles and November 1 for Houston, Emirates will fly non-stop to both cities twice a day on Boeing 777 aircraft.

The services will provide the highest standards of passenger comfort, with luxurious private suites in First Class, lie-flat beds in Business Class and generously-sized Economy Class seats.

Emirates Airline President Tim Clark said, Emirates has experienced very strong demand across all of its U.S. gateways this year, including very healthy premium and business traffic. “We are delighted to meet this increased demand with the start of second daily services to both Houston and Los Angeles,” he said.

The additional services will provide customers in the Middle East and Asia with even easier access to the largest cities in Texas and California, supporting the burgeoning business and leisure traffic between these markets and the United States.

Cathay introduces flights to Moscow

Cathay Pacific Airways has introduced new flights and fares to Moscow.

Cathay Pacific Airways Sales and Marketing Manager Ruhan Abbas said whether you are a business or leisure traveller, you will enjoy greater convenience and the comfort and pleasure of Cathay Pacific’s personal service and in-flight entertainment.

To celebrate the commencement of flights to Moscow Cathay is offering special promotional fares to customers.

Cathay Pacific flies to Moscow three times a week via Hong Kong, and provides hotel accommodation and transfers for layovers at the airlines central hub.

Cathay Pacific Airways is represented in Sri Lanka by Finlays Colombo PLC as general sales agent.

More details regarding flights and promotions can be obtained by contacting your travel agent or Cathay Pacific.

Travellers can log onto www.cathaypacific.com/lk regarding Moscow flights and promotions.