SriLankan Airlines 3rd international carrier to link Coimbatore

“We have recommenced operations now after better ground work. We will be operating four days a week (Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday) and are hoping to make it a daily flight as the opening bookings are highly encouraging. We had nearly 80 per cent occupancy in the launch flights between Colombo and Coimbatore,” Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of the airline Siva Ramachandran said. 

For the airline, Coimbatore is the 14th destination in India and 4th in the state, following Chennai, where five flights are operated every day, Tiruchy and Madurai where at least one flight is operated daily. 

“We don’t think flights to Coimbatore will affect the number of passengers flying from the three other cities in the state,” he said responding to a query. The CCO said, “We are also targeting commuters from Kerala as well to use the flights from Coimbatore.”  

The airlines will be operating its brand new Airbus A320 neo and A321 neo to the city based on demand. The CCO said India tops the list in terms of most number of tourists flying to Sri Lanka. 

Stating that 18 per cent of the country’s tourists are from India, the official said that the number is growing by not less than 10 to 12 per cent annually. He further pointed out that most of the passengers are from south India. 

The airline’s manager for TN and Karnataka SP Mohan said that as an inaugural offer they have priced the all inclusive round trip from Coimbatore at Rs 11,800 till September 30. They are also looking at possibility of launching separate freight operations to the city. 

Commencement of operations makes Sri Lanka the third international destination from the city.