Travel agents are important assets

From increasing flights to Delhi to joining Oneworld and continuing to offer five per cent IATA commission, Srilankan Airlines is investing in their most important market- India. talks to Nishantha Wickramasinghe, Chairman, Srilankan Airlines to know more

DEVIKA JEET SriLankan

Airlines has rapidly grown in India and is steadily increasing its presence in the country. “When we started four-five years back, we only had a few flights to India. And now, we are flying to Chennai four times a day, we just stated flights to Madurai, we have double daily flights to Trichy and fly daily to Thiruvananthpuram and Delhi once a day. From February, we will add five more flights a week to Delhi, operating a total of 12 flights a week”, says Wickramasinghe. “I also look after Mihin Lanka, and these are flights for both the airlines as they both operate under one umbrella,” he says.

Working with travel agents from across the country is priority for the airline. Discussing their USP, Wickramasinghe says, “Our in-flight service and excellent connectivity make us an ideal airline. We sell at very affordable and competitive prices and still offer five per cent IATA commission. Over all, we work very closely with IATA and feel that our agents are our most important assets.”

“Now we are also enrolling in Oneworld. We are working to upgrade our technology and join this global network. I am very confident that by the end of this year, we will be joining Oneworld. It will be a huge bonus and increase our network manifold.”

Discussing the reasons for their rapid growth,

Wickramasinghe

adds, “This demonstrates the market (India) and its growth potential. There is not much point-to-point traffic from India, and we aligned ourselves to offer the best connections to transit passengers. A lot of passengers are transiting through Colombo and go to either the Far East or the Middle East. We are also the popular choice for a lot of work traffic to the Middle East. Around 60 per cent of the passengers from India are transit category.”

“We do have a number of leisure groups from India which bring point-to-point traffic, but the majority of the leisure groups travel to the Far East, such as Malaysia, Singapore and Male,” he says. Sri Lanka offers beaches, hill stations, culture and religion; making it an ideal holiday destination.

SriLankan Airlines is also focussing on MICE traffic and recently unveiled new MICE brochures describing what Sri Lanka has to offer as a MICE destination in Asia. Dubai and Bangkok and cater well for transit passengers on those routes,” says Wickramasinghe.

He further highlights the importance of the India market for the airline by adding, “India is the market of today, tomorrow and the future. Our two countries have a very close relationship. Politically, both the countries are stable and have a healthy relationship. Sri Lanka is also one of the safest countries and an affordable destination to travel to for Indians.” Sri Lankan Airlines is a popular choice for transit passengers as it provides quick connections. “We provide connections to and from Indians with quick and well well-connected flights. It is a well-known fact that passengers are not ready to wait in the airport for long hours. Our maximum waiting time between two flights is three hours. We have increased the frequency of our flights to provide these good and well suited connections,” he says, “India is a big hub for flights to the Middle and Far East.”

Discussing growth prospects for this year, he says, “I reckon that India will grow about 8 to 10 per cent by the end of this year.”