Turkish Airlines commences operations to BIA

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

Turkey’s flag carrier Turkish Airlines for the first time launched service to Colombo International Airport from Istanbul from last Friday. The airline would operate five flights per week to Male via Colombo.

They would operate every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, in the sector Istanbul/Male/Colombo/Male/Istanbul.

General Manager, Turksh Airlines, Adnan Aykac said that the flights would operate on an Airbus A340-300 which has the ability to carry about 100 additional passengers.

Asked why they failed to recognize Colombo as a destination before? he said that the airline was on a rapid expansion drive and now they have the additional aircraft to service Colombo.

“The airline has also ordered more aircraft and when we acquire them we would be also looking at operating direct flights to Colombo in a few months,” he said.

He also said that forward booking for Colombo too is good and they hope to maintain a 80% load factor throughout the year.

“Sri Lanka is an exciting destination for us,” he said.

He also said that though they operate to Male they have not got the rights to carry passengers from Colombo to Male and back.

Colombo would be the airline’s 219th destination and the 98th country to operate flights.

Chairman Pership Holidays, Manik Perere, the appointed GSA for Turkish Airlines in Sri Lanka said that the introduction of the Turkish airline would be another major boost for the Sri Lankan tourism industry.

“There would be many more tourists not only form Turkey but from other regional airlines that would visit Sri Lanka due to this airline,” he said.