SRILANKAN Airlines today commenced its first-ever regular weekly charters from Colombo to the Chinese south-western province of Chongqing, operated with Airbus A320 aircraft.
The service is a collaboration between Walkers Tours, the tour operating arm of Sri Lanka’s John Keells Group, and Chongqing Huapont International Travel Service.
Vasantha Leelananda, executive vice president and head – destination management sector, John Keells Group, said: “This gives us an opportunity to open a new hub out of Chongqing, and we are thankful to the airline and our partner in China for having confidence in the destination.”
The carrier has previously run non-regular charters to Kunming and Chengdu.
Charters between European destinations and Colombo were popular before the country’s civil war, but disappeared when the conflict broke out.
Chinese arrivals to Sri Lanka for the period January-May 2014 rose 139.6 per cent year-on-year to 43,885 from 18,316.
