AeroSvit begins flights to Colombo

Demi HEWAMANNA

AeroSvit Ukrainian Airlines will begin its first point to point non stop flights bringing down its first set of passengers to Colombo from this Sunday, October 23.

AeroSvit is the largest carrier in Ukraine and has scheduled three flights per week departing from Kyiv on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays and arrivals are set for Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Wide body Boeing 767 will be on the line with a duration of nine hour.

"The flights for December have already been booked", Hayleys Leisure and Aviation Sector Johann Wijesinghe said at a press conference held last week.

The reason for launching this flight service to Sri Lanka is for the growing demand of air carriages to the country that is abundant with rich cultures, resorts, historical and architectural sites. Johann also added that there has been a tremendous growth of over 5100 tourists from Ukraine this year as of last year and they hope the number will increase by the end of this year.

The airline expects to attract tourists from Europe, North America and Middle East and the flight network will be connected to Stockholm, Copenhagen, Budapest, Vilnius, Warsaw, Prague, Riga, Moscow, Minsk, New York, Toronto, Tel Aviv and Istanbul.

AeroSvit Ukrainian Airlines which was started in 1994 operates over 80 international routes to 33 countries and has over 66 aircrafts.