SRILANKAN Airlines is expanding its longstanding partnership with Malaysia Airlines (MAS) with new codeshare arrangements to Vietnam and additional cities in Australia.
Mohamed Fazeel, SriLankan’s head of commercial operations, said his airline will provide daily services to Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth via Kuala Lumpur through MAS, which already helps carry SriLankan Airlines passengers to Sydney and Melbourne, under earlier arrangements.
Meanwhile, Saigon and Hanoi in Vietnam and the islands of Penang and Langkawi in Malaysia have also been added as codeshare destinations via Kuala Lumpur, according to Dushy Jayaweera of MAS’ Colombo office.
SriLankan also has a codeshare arrangement with MAS for passengers flying to Kuala Lumpur.
Fazeel said SriLankan is consistently looking at improving air connectivity between Sri Lanka and Australasia, which in effect will increase the number of visitors to the country.
“These new codeshare destinations will further enhance our service to this fast-growing region which, according to official figures, had the highest growth of tourist traffic of 25.3 per cent in 2013,” he added.
SriLankan Airlines also expects traffic between Sri Lanka and Vietnam to grow as Vietnam’s socio-economic stability and close cultural ties are increasingly attracting visitors between the two countries.
