Sri Lanka-Goa bi-weekly inaugural flight launched

Panaji, Oct 30: In a movement of jubilation in the tourist season, much awaited Sri Lanka-Goa bi-weekly flight service kickstarted today with Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane receiving the inaugural flight at Dhabolim airport in the island state.

Overwhelmed with joy, Srilankan High Commissioner in India C R Jayasinghe said his country would reciprocate the gesture of India encapsulating empathy and warmth emotions to help boost tourism for mutual benefit.

With concerted efforts to promote tourism in cooperation with international tour operators and differfent governments, Srilankan airlines was expected to double its turnover in next five years as against its current USD 700 million, according to Manoj Gunawardena, head of worldwide passenger sales of the airlines.

He told mediapersons that its fleet strength A320 boeings was also likely to touch 20 as against 15 at present. The airlines had already submitted its long term strategic expansion plan to Srilankan government with India, Germany, UK, France and Japan which were identified key sectors of growth in tourism and partners.

''We are not here to take from India but bring the world to India. We market India through global campaigns and investment in India,'' he said. The Srilankan airlines at present operates 170 flights per week, 87 of them out of India with 50 destinations in 28 countries. It had representatives in 75 countries, he added.

It had plans to expand its services in India. It had just got rights to fly to Coimbatore and Pune and run additional flghts to Mumbai and Hyderabad soon, even as it was the only international airlines operating exclusively fro Trichy and Calicut, according to the airlines Indian sub-continent and Maldives regional manager Senaka Fernando.

In this connection, the airlines' Goa manager Manimegalai announced two inaugural package offers valid till December 15 for spending two and five nights with accommodtion respectively in Srinalka.

UNI