Second international destination after Kathmandu:

SpiceJet flies to Lanka

Gayan KANCHANA

India’s low cost carrier SpiceJet was launched in Sri Lanka last week.

It will operate daily flights between Colombo and Chennai.

SpiceJet Chief Commercial Officer Samyukth Sridharan said this was their second international operation after Kathmandu.

“We thought Sri Lanka is one of the best countries to start our international operations. Although our fares are low we can make profits by offering those rates,” he said.

“In the next six months we will bring more flights to Colombo to connect two or three more destinations including Mumbai, Kathmandu (Nepal), and New Delhi. With the dawn of peace the number of Indian tourists arriving in Sri Lanka have increased and we think it will be a significant advantage for us,” he said.

SpiceJet Director and CEO Kishore Gupta said Sri Lanka is a diverse and culturally rich country with a strong history as a trading society.

“We are delighted to expand our range of destinations in the South Asian sub continent with the start of our flights to Colombo,” he said.

“By making travel to Colombo less expensive and hassle free, we are confident that this route will be very popular”.

The initial responses to the launch of these flights has been extremely encouraging and we look forward to rapidly establishing our presence in Sri Lankan market and at the same time strengthening air connectivity to destination within the SAARC region. The airline will fly its new generation Boeing 737-800 (189 seater) aircraft on this route,” he said.

SpiceJet with over 13 percent market share operates 151 flights daily to 20 cities in India. It completed five years of domestic operations recently.