KOREAN Air is resuming flights to Colombo after 28 years, becoming one of only three airlines to fly to Sri Lanka with a first-class cabin.
The thrice-weekly flights between Seoul and Colombo will begin on March 9, 2013 with an Airbus A330, said Priyantha Mendis, managing director of Alpha Tours, GSA for Korean Air in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. The flights will be extended to the Maldives through Colombo.
“We are catering to Korean and Japanese traffic to the Maldives via Colombo in addition to passengers to Colombo,” he told TTG Asia e-Daily.
The A330 to be used on this sector has six first-class seats, 18 business class-seats and 252 economy seats. The other airlines with first-class cabins into Colombo are Emirates and Singapore Airlines.
Korean Air stopped flying to Colombo in 1984 for reasons such as the break out of hostilities between government troops and Tamil rebels in 1983.
Nilmin Cooray, managing director of NKar Travels, said the development was an endorsement of Sri Lanka as a good tourism destination.
However, Sasi Ganeshan, CEO of travel group VMS, said the Maldives would stand to benefit more because it receives a higher number of South Koreans than Sri Lanka.
