Sri Lankan Airlines works to get back to twice-daily flights to UAE, other Gulf destinations

Sri Lankan Airlines works to get back to twice-daily flights to UAE, other Gulf destinations

Dubai: Sri Lankan Airlines is in a race to restore flight frequencies and increase the number of aircraft in service by replacing the ones that are going off-lease by mid-next year. The GCC markets, especially Dubai and the UAE, remain vital for the airline to achieve at least some - if not all - of these goals, said its CEO Richard Nuttall. It will continue to be hard work as the airline has been struggling with legacy issues surrounding its financial viability. At the same time, there is also the broader context of the country itself having to rebuild its economy. But Nuttall is quite clear of what the airline needs to be doing. Sri Lankan Airlines has to double its capacities on its high demand routes. The airline operates 43 daily flights to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Riyadh, and Kuwait, serving predominantly Sri Lankan expats. “This is much less capacity than pre-Covid operations of twice daily flights from all these destinations,” said Dimuthu Tennakoon, Head of Worldwide Sales and Distribution of Sri Lankan Airlines. “Leisure traffic has to pick up because there is a growing demand for tourism to Sri Lanka from this region.” Nuttal said Sri Lankan Airlines