SriLankan Airlines has announced its return to the fabled city of Rome from 03rd December 2008, with a thrice-weekly service.
The flight, which will be operated on Airbus A340 widebodied aircraft, will operate on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday and take the route Colombo-Rome-Paris-Rome-Colombo. Flying time to Colombo will be of 10 hours duration.
The service will be particularly convenient for Italians travelling to the sunny resorts in the Maldives. Italy is the largest country of origin of tourists to the Maldives, with more than 120,000 visitors annually. SriLankan Airlines is the largest operator to the Maldives, with 21 flights a week to Male from Colombo, London, and Tokyo. Male is a short 75-minute flight from Colombo.
SriLankan Airlines and Sri Lanka Tourism are also focusing on bringing increased numbers of Italian tourists to Sri Lanka, which has traditionally been a popular leisure destination among Europeans.
SriLankan also has convenient connections from Colombo throughout the Far East, including Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Beijing. It is one of the largest carriers into India, where it serves 11 cities.
Italy is also home to a large immigrant population of Sri Lankans, and Rome is a popular pilgrimage among the Catholic community in Sri Lanka.
The flight, UL563, will originate in Colombo at 1 a.m, and arrive at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport at the convenient time of 7 a.m. it will depart Rome at 8 a.m and reach Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris at 10:10 a.m.
The return journey, UL564, will commence from Paris at 11:50 a.m. and arrive in Rome at 1:45 p.m. Takeoff from Rome is scheduled at 2:45 p.m. for Colombo, where it will touch down at 5 a.m. the next day. (All times are local).
While on board, Italian passengers will enjoy the legendary warm and friendly service of Sri Lanka’s global award-winning carrier. These include 18-channel seatback television at every seat with 22 audio channels and 16 video games, with Business Class having a choice of movies on video as well.
With the addition of Rome, SriLankan will have a network of 45 destinations in 25 countries across Europe, the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent, and the Far East. Rome was among several destinations to which SriLankan suspended services in 2001, when the global airline industry faced a crisis following September 11.
About SriLankan Airlines
SriLankan Airlines is expanding its Middle East operations, most recently adding two weekly services to Jeddah to its network starting March 27. The airline also increased its frequencies into Qatar and Bahrain recently, taking the airlines total frequencies into the Middle East to 45 flights a week. The airline has also recently opened up new routes into Asia adding a third weekly service to Goa and launching double daily services to Mumbai earlier this year. The growing number of services to India takes SriLankan Airlines closer to the 100 flights a week mark, and reinforces its position as the foreign carrier with the most number of frequencies into ten key cities across India.
