IN A reversal of an earlier decision to continue flights to Paris and Frankfurt, SriLankan Airlines has announced plans to suspend both sectors this winter.
Ajith Dias, chairman of the national carrier, told TTG Asia e-Daily: “The two destinations, Paris and Frankfurt, have been under evaluation for awhile. The decision to pull out from both stations is not sudden. Deteriorating yields in both markets compelled the airline to take this decision.”
SriLankan Airlines will continue flying to London, its gateway to Europe and North America, said Dias.
The national carrier’s withdrawal from Germany, Sri Lanka’s fourth largest source market, had prompted some travellers to change carriers while others had cancelled their bookings, revealed Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators’ president, Devendra Senaratne.
Ahintha Amerasinghe, managing director at Worldlink Travels, foresees a short-term fallout from SriLankan Airlines’ pull-out but expects a recovery in the long term, adding that KLM’s twice-weekly flights from October will also cushion the impact.
Industry sources said that Austrian Airlines, which began winter flights to Colombo last October, had helped to boost the European market.
In the meantime, Dias indicated that restructuring plans is underway for SriLankan Airlines, which is still struggling to recover from a US$3.5 billion debt and seeking a foreign partner to pull it out of the woods.
