SriLankan’s Moscow service will commence initially with two flights per week on Thursdays and Saturdays and it will operate via Dubai. “We are delighted to announce the launch of services to Moscow. This will be the first time in history that our national carrier has served Russia, and will no doubt serve to greatly strengthen the close relationship between our two nations,” Nishantha Wickremasinghe, Chairman, SriLankan Airlines, said in a press statement. The carrier has been expanding steadily over the past several months by launching services to Shanghai in July 2010, Guangzhou and Kochi in January and March respectively in 2011. SriLankan also increased the capacity to Karachi, Bahrain, Doha and Muscat in March this year. The carrier is also set to acquire at least six aircraft this year to ramp up its global operation. The airline recently re-launched its domestic service SriLankan Air Taxi, making many parts of the island accessible within an hour on its floatplanes The thrust on international expansion is due to the increased inbound arrivals to Sri Lanka. “Tourism to Sri Lanka has been booming since the dawn of permanent peace in the Indian Ocean island two years ago. Tourist arrivals grew by 34 percent in the first quarter of 2011, after setting an all time record of 654,000 in 2010,” the release said. Tourist arrivals from Russia grew by 21 percent in the first quarter of 2010, and by 22 percent from other countries in Eastern Europe. The airline already serves five European cities – London, Paris, Frankfurt, Rome and Milan. SriLankan is also largest carrier into Maldives, which is another firm favourite among Russian travelers. SriLankan operates six flights per day into Male, which is just over an hour’s flying time from Colombo. A significant number of Sri Lankans study in Russian universities and this new service will be beneficial to them as well.
