SriLankan Airlines launches Beijing Service on June 15

SriLankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka, will cross an exciting new frontier when it begins thrice weekly services to China on the 15th of June 2005. The flights on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday will operate from Colombo to Beijing via Bangkok.

SriLankan Airlines will be initially focusing on the huge family travel and leisure market from China to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, as well as providing the Chinese traveller with convenient connections to the Middle East and Europe. This will be in keeping with SriLankan’s vision of making Colombo the hub in South Asia, while promoting Maldives and Sri Lanka as twin holiday destinations.

The already established and extremely popular holiday destination for the Chinese is Bangkok in Thailand, and SriLankan expects to carry a significant number of these tourists on the Beijing - Bangkok - Beijing sectors of its new flight. They will be working closely with outbound travel agents in Beijing and inbound tourism agencies and interests in Thailand to develop competitive “rest and recreation” packages to Thai resort destinations to further grow this market.

“SriLankan Airlines is covering not just Beijing but all of this vast country,” said Ajith Weerasekera, SriLankan’s Manager China. “This is a market with 1.3 billion people, 50 million of whom already use air travel. With its gross domestic product growing 9.5% year on year, this is the market for the future, and we are entering it right on time. Neighbouring countries such as South Korea, Japan, Thailand, and Singapore each count a million Chinese visitors every year. Plus there’s an equal volume of foreign travellers to China.”

With a skyrocketing economic growth, a significant increase in purchasing power and with a high disposable income, China today, is a key player in the global economy and will continue to be so for the next decade. A direct result of this economic boom has been the corresponding increase in air travel. Last year nearly 29 million Chinese flew all over the world on leisure, shopping, pilgrimage, adventure and vacations.

SriLankan has carried out a series of promotional events to lay the groundwork for operations in China. Pre-launch events included visits by Sri Lanka’s Tourism Minister last year together with the airline’s CEO Peter Hill and the Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism Board, and the opening of SriLankan’s ticket office in Beijing last October. A series of road shows are being held in many provinces throughout 2005, targeting travel agents, the travelling public, and China’s regional media. Events are being held in close co-operation with the Sri Lanka Tourism Board.

It is hoped that the launch of services to Beijing will now add a modern cultural dialogue to the strong diplomatic and trade relations the two countries already enjoy. The island home of Sri Lanka, rich in heritage, culture, wildlife, sunny beaches, indigenous herbal medicine and stunning natural beauty will be an ideal vacation destination for the Chinese, while providing many of SriLankan Airlines’ destinations on its growing network.

An important aspect of the launch of flights to China was the signing of interline agreements with four airlines - Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, and Dragon Air - that service 27 major cities throughout China. Passengers anywhere in China will have easy access to the SriLankan network of destinations, and passengers flying into China can travel on SriLankan up to Beijing and hop on to domestic flights with ease. The introduction of this new flight will provide Bangkok with daily frequencies to Colombo.

The new Business Class Lounge at Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport is second to none in the region in terms of comfort and facilities, from giant TV screens to showers and Internet access. Later this year the airport will also see the completion of a modern terminal with eight Aero Bridges, to add to South Asia’s finest Duty Free Shopping Complex which has already been upgraded.