Sri Lankan Airlines Carries Record Passenger Numbers in 2007

Sri Lankan Airlines which become the first foreign carrier to operate 100 flights per week to India last November and is now serving 11 cities there said that the airline had carried 3.2 million passengers in 2007, up 100,000 from the previous year, the largest volume of passengers it had carried since its creation in 1979.
According to Airline sources, the biggest improvements were in traffic to and from Frankfurt, Bahrain, Doha, Bangkok, and Singapore.

“We remained strong in all regions, and our focus on the Indian market yielded excellent results,” Manoj Gunawardena, head of the airline’s worldwide passenger sales said in a statement. In India big increases were seen in the number of passengers carried to and from Mumbai, Calicut, Goa, Madras, and Bangalore.

In the 1998 financial year ending in March, the airline carried 1.2 million passengers. By 2006 SriLankan was carrying 3.0 million passengers.

During 2007 it launched services to Coimbatore and expanded services to several other cities, including a double-daily service to Mumbai. Despite the increased competition from other carriers in India, the Middle East and Southeast Asia and several other setbacks, significant increases in passenger numbers were recorded in Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, Airline sources said.

“Apart from carrying travelers to and from Sri Lanka, the airline has focused on turning Colombo into a hub in the region, connecting East and West and serving as the gateway to India,” SriLankan said.

The airline’s other markets, including London, Male, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, Trivandrum, Trichy, and Cochin were steady.

Services to Coimbatore and Jeddah which were launched in 2007 were performing up to expectations.
Sri Lankan says it has won an award for being the world’s most efficient operator of Airbus A330s in the small fleet category.

Source: Government of Sri Lanka

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