SriLankan Airlines on maiden flight to Seychelles |04 November 2016

The flag carrier of Sri Lanka, SriLankan Airlines, now has direct flights to and from Seychelles four times a week – on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Based in Colombo, SriLankan Airlines formerly known as Air Lanka, made its maiden flight to Seychelles yesterday morning.

The airline uses a fleet of narrow and wide bodied airbus aircraft. The arrival flight is UL707 and the departure flight is UL708.

SriLankan Airline operates a network of regional services between Asia and the sub-continent as well as services in the Middle East and Europe.

After a 3 hour 50 minute long trip the passengers and crew members of Airbus A320 were treated to a warm welcome of rain showers, water canon salute, traditional music and dance as well as a necklace of frangipane flowers upon landing at the Pointe Larue International Airport just after 10.20am local time.

The aircraft’s arrival was followed by a press conference with the Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine Alain St Ange and SriLankan Airlines’ chief commercial officer Siva Ramachandran in the presence of the Sri Lankan high commissioner Dr Tikiri Herath Gunathilake, principal secretary (PS) for tourism Anne Lafortune, PS for Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine Garry Albert, chief executive (CEO) of the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) Sherin Francis, CEO of the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) Gilbert Faure, the passengers, crew, press members from India, China and Sri Lanka, among other distinguished guests.

Minister St Ange welcomed the passengers and guests and expressed his happiness to witness the arrival of the airline.

He stressed on the importance of this important link for the ministry and for Seychelles as direct air access to key source markets which also opens the world to Seychelles.

He said SriLankan Airlines brings a key advantage to our country as it is part of the Oneworld alliance, which is a body affiliated with British Airways and the arrival of SriLankan Airlines brings to two the number of carriers that are part of the Oneworld group – the other one being Qatar Airways which is flying in in December.

“Travellers who are members of the Oneworld alliance with miles to redeem can now come to Seychelles and since it links us to British Airways it provides another lease to promote Seychelles overseas,” he said.

Minsiter St Ange also highlighted the benefits this direct link brings for Seychellois in terms of medical tourism and commercial trade.

“We increasingly notice that more and more Seychellois are getting their health treatments in Sri Lanka and there is also trade between certain sectors such as fisheries,” he said.

The airline also opens our network as it connects to 117 destinations in India alone.

Mr Ramachandran said SriLankan Airlines will be offering an upgraded product compared to the previous route partner Mihin Lanka which was a low cost carrier.

“We have also increased the frequencies from three to four to offer connectivity to our huge network beyond Colombo, two of which will arrive in the morning at around 6 o’clock and departing Sri Lanka at around midday and the other two will be arriving like today at 10.20am and departing at 11.20am,” he said.

He said the two different times will provide for better connectivity to China, India and a few other countries in the Far East.

“We felt the link between the two Indian Ocean islands is going to boost tourism because we also bring in tourists to Sri Lanka and what we have learned from the Maldives link is that people do appreciate any airline which can link two stations but more importantly Seychelles is in our belief underserved and we see a tremendous potential not only in tourism but in trade as well,” he said.