Prasenjit Chakraborty - Mumbai With Sri Lankan Government’s announcement to reopen the island nation to fully vaccinated Indian tourists including for those who had administered Covaxin, SriLankan Airlines decided to strengthen its presence in India with more destinations and frequencies.
Speaking to TravelBiz Monitor, Dimuthu Tennakoon, SriLankan Airlines’ head of worldwide sales and distribution, said that it’s a huge announcement at the most appropriate time. “ Currently, in India, more than 120 million people have been fully vaccinated which has resulted in the reawakening interest in travel. I strongly believe tourists from Northern, Southern and Western regions of India will visit Sri Lanka soon,” said Dimuthu. He strongly feels that travellers belonging to Family and FIT segments will travel more after this announcement. “We will soon announce some lucrative offers for travellers,” Dimuthu revealed.
Sri Lanka will accept tourists with all vaccines including Covaxin and there will be no quarantine for travellers who test Covid negative on arrival in Sri Lanka. One just needs to be fully vaccinated, with the second shot taken at least 14 days before the trip. A mandatory RT-PCR test will be conducted in the hotel and if anyone tests positive will be taken to health care centers run from hotels. All global Covid protocols like social distancing, & hand sanitation will be strictly followed.
SriLankan Airlines currently operates four flights a week from Chennai, three flights a week from Mumbai, and once a week from Bangalore to its hub in Colombo. To strengthen ongoing operations, SriLankan will be introducing a host of frequency enhancements out of key Indian cities into Colombo effective September 1, 2021. The airline will be resuming services between Colombo and the Indian points; Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Trivandrum and Cochin with flights once a week, whilst Hyderabad and New Delhi will be connected to Colombo with twice-weekly flights.
Further, the airlines’ operations out of Chennai and Mumbai will expand up to five times a week whilst its Bangalore-Colombo services will be enhanced to flights three times a week. Before the outbreak of the pandemic, the Airline operated an extensive network out of 11 Indian cities over 120 flights a week to Colombo, connecting travellers to the resplendent island and beyond.
