SriLankan Airlines is steadily moving towards post-pandemic passenger recovery, with many of its flights to key markets witnessing impressive occupancy. India remains its number one international market, despite figures still not reaching pre-COVID levels, while Australia has bounced back strongly, surpassing the levels seen in 2019.
The last two years were difficult for SriLankan Airlines, to say the least. But the airline continued to be flexible during COVID, identifying new destinations according to demand and adding additional stops in India to some long-haul flights during the fuel crisis.
Simple Flying got a chance to speak with SriLankan Airlines’ Head of Worldwide Sales & Distribution, Mr Dimuthu Tennakoon, who talked about the airline’s business recovery so far.
India still contributes substantial traffic
India continues to be SriLankan’s top international market, although passenger volume is still substantially low compared to pre-COVID levels. In 2019, the airline carried more than 450,000 passengers from India; in 2022, this figure stood at 130,000.
This is primarily because of the current reduction of weekly flights from 125 to around 90. The carrier dropped two destinations from India – Coimbatore and Kolkata – and now flies to nine cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kochi, Trivandrum, Hyderabad, Madurai, and Tiruchirappalli). So, is it planning to add any new destinations soon? Tennakoon commented,
“We want to strengthen the current operations first, only then will we start thinking about adding new destinations. Currently, we are operating to the nine destinations with limited frequencies, but we have a minimum of daily flights out of all Indian cities and a maximum of 3-4 flights a day out of some cities.”
Before COVID, around 15% of SriLankan’s total revenue came from India. This has dropped to 10% after the pandemic, but India still accounts for most tourist arrivals for SriLankan Airlines and supplies many connecting passengers. Tennakoon added that Sri Lanka is more than ready to welcome additional tourists from India and other regions, and the national carrier will definitely play a significant role in boosting the country's tourism industry.
Plenty of connecting traffic
Australia is the top destination for Indian passengers seeking a flight connection out of Colombo. And while Qantas and Air India’s direct services from Delhi and Bengaluru have had some impact, SriLankan’s daily flight to Melbourne and three weekly Sydney flights are seeing impressive occupancy rates, thanks to the strong Indian and Sri Lankan diaspora in Australia.
Despite intense competition, the airline also gets decent traffic from South India for connections to the Middle East and flights to London from cities such as Kochi and Trivandrum.
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Air India started a direct Kochi-London flight during the pandemic, but despite this new service, there’s enough demand for this sector for passengers to look towards SriLankan for a connection.
Flight resumption to China
SriLankan Airlines’ China market was drastically affected during COVID. It continued to operate two weekly services to Guangzhou even during the pandemic but is now ready to expand further in a couple of months.
From April 3rd, SriLankan will operate nine weekly flights to mainland China – three each to Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing. The airline expects a lot of business from China and is already getting inquiries for these services.
Some of its other services in Asia include daily flights to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bangkok, and three weekly flights to Tokyo and two to Seoul.
Australia has recovered fully
The carrier’s Australian network has bounced back successfully, even surpassing pre-pandemic figures. This is because of the launch of a new service to Sydney during COVID.
SriLankan continues to offer a daily flight to Melbourne, which is now accompanied by its three weekly flights to Sydney. As mentioned above, these services are extremely popular with Indian and Sri Lankan passengers alike and operate at near capacity.
Flights to Europe have also seen good traffic lately. SriLankan’s European network currently covers London (nine weekly flights), Paris, and Frankfurt (three weekly flights each), of which Paris and Frankfurt were resumed during the pandemic due to high demand.
And while these flights have been operating at capacity, the passenger segment has shifted because of the pandemic. Earlier flights to Europe carried plenty of tourists, but lately, it is mostly Sri Lankan passengers traveling in and out of Sri Lanka following the opening of international borders.
Fleet
SriLankan Airlines currently has 18 active planes in service. Of these, 10 are widebody Airbus A330s while the rest are narrowbody A320 family of aircraft. Fleet optimization and renewal have posed some challenges for the airline lately. But there have been some developments recently.
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The airline is seeking 10 aircraft on lease (five A330s and five A320 family of planes) and has issued a Request for Proposals, stating their requirements. If all goes according to plan, SriLankan could see newer aircraft join its fleet from the second half of the year to replace older planes, some of which have clocked more than 20 years.
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