At the airline's Asia-Pacific regional meeting in Bangkok, Barry Brown said SriLankan currently operates 15 flights weekly from Bangkok. There are seven to Colombo, four to Beijing and four to Hong Kong.

The tsunami at the end of 2004 and higher fuel prices had a big negative effect on SriLankan Airlines throughout 2005.

However, Brown said, the situation was now looking "very promising", as the airline is aggressively planning route expansion to India and China for the years to come.

"The airline's flight connections in the region also aim to focus on destinations with potential to promote religious culture. Therefore the air links between Bangkok, Colombo and Buddhist destinations like Bodhgaya in India will be heavily promoted among Thai pilgrims", added Brown.

The Indian market is growing strongly for SriLankan Airlines.

The latest additional service to Goa, the beach resort in the western coast of India, will be launched in its coming winter programme.

The newly added service to Goa will be added as the tenth destination in India for SriLankan, after New Delhi, Bombay, Madras, Trichy, Trivandrum, Calicut, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kochi.

India remains SriLankan's biggest market.

Brown also said the airline planned to restore service between Colombo and two destinations in Australia - Sydney and Melbourne.

It will also add new services to destinations in South Africa, East Africa and China.

These expansions are scheduled to be phased in over the next three years.

SriLankan Holiday, the new leisure division set up in January, will introduce new travel packages to its major destinations in Sri Lanka, the Maldives, China, India and Thailand. Holidays and stopover packages under the newly created leisure arm are expected to bring more leisure passengers to SriLankan' AIrline's destinations.

In Sri Lanka, the holiday division will focus on drawing adventure and sports tourism. One of the biggest golf tournaments in Asia, "SriLankan Strokes", under the sponsorship of SriLankan Airlines and HSBC, was held last week. SriLankan will also sponsor an international surfing competition in Aguram Bay in June.

Offers from the new holiday division are designed for various targets.

They include the gamut, from leisure travel for individuals, couples and families, to business travel, adventure travel, sports tourism, cultural tours and MICE tourism (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions).

This list also includes out-bound packages for Sri Lankans to travel overseas and in-bound tours for visitors to Sri Lanka.

Brown also said that during the low tourist season the airline would kick off many value-for-money travel packages.

Since 1998, SriLankan Airlines has been in a strategic partnership with Dubai-based Emirates Airline, in which Emirates took a 40-per-cent shareholding in the company. Today, SriLankan Airlines flies to 49 destinations in 28 countries.

Vipasai Niyamabha

The Nation