JEDDAH, 1 March 2007 — SriLankan Airlines will resume Jeddah operations from March 27, following a code-share agreement with Saudi Arabian Airlines here on Tuesday.
“Our national airline becoming online again is being well received, especially by the Sri Lankan expatriate community who had to travel by other international carriers since the discontinuance of services from Jeddah on Oct. 20, 1998,” Sri Lankan Ambassador A.M.J. Sadiq told reporters here yesterday.
“The return of services between Jeddah and Colombo will enable our Haj and Umrah pilgrims to fly on their national carrier,” Sadiq said, adding that the development has also been welcomed by businessmen and tourists visiting the island or transiting through to India and the Far East.
There are about 500,000 Sri Lankan expatriates in the Kingdom, some 150,000 of them in the Western Province alone.
Around 5,000 performed the recent Haj and their numbers could increase with the island’s direct and regular flights to Jeddah.
The airline will operate two flights weekly, on Tuesday and Friday, between Jeddah and Colombo.
Abdul Mohsen Jonaid, vice president for marketing and planning, signed the deal with Mohamed Fazeel, SriLankan’s Colombo-based regional manager for Middle East, Africa and CIS.
Jeddah will become the 51st international destination of SriLankan, which covers cities in 29 countries. “Jeddah becomes the Kingdom’s third, the Middle East’s ninth and world’s 51st destination,” Fazeel said, adding that the new code-share agreement also covers SriLankan’s operations from and to Dammam.
Niranjan Fonseka is the airline’s new station manager with Chinthaka Bandara its sales manager in Jeddah, both of whom participated in the agreement signing ceremony. The airline will operate A330 and A340 aircraft with over 300 seats in a two-class configuration.
It distinguishes itself as the largest international carrier flying from Colombo to India, with 94 weekly flights to 10 destinations that include Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Goa, Tiruchi, Thiruvananthapurum, Kochi, Kozhikode, Bangalore and Chennai. It operates daily three flights to Maldives Island. “SriLankan Airlines is the largest foreign carrier into India with 94 weekly flights, making us a preferred carrier to the subcontinent’s residents,” Fazeel added.
“We are confident that our new service will greatly enhance travel between Colombo and Jeddah,” SriLankan Airlines’ head of worldwide passenger sales, Manoj Gunewardene, said.
