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Cathay Pacific to increase flights to Colombo from 2025

Cathay Pacific to increase flights to Colombo from 2025

The Morning: Cathay Pacific is set to increase its flight frequency from Colombo, raising services from three to five flights per week from March 2025, according to Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka Deputy Director General Rayhan Wanniappa.
“Cathay Pacific will be increasing frequencies to five flights per week from March 2025. They are also considering further expansions in the number of weekly flights, which may take effect later this year or by next year,” Wanniappa told The Daily Morning Business on 28 January.
The Hong Kong-based flag carrier connects Colombo with key destinations including Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, Australia, the USA, and Canada.
Cathay Pacific resumed scheduled passenger flights to Colombo in 2024 after suspending operations in 2020 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The airline has identified leisure tourists, business professionals, and students in Sri Lanka as a key part of its passenger base.
Hong Kong remains a major aviation hub, facilitating travel between mainland China and Sri Lanka.
“There is a likelihood that countries in the Middle East will also expand connectivity along with Chinese carriers in 2025, though no firm commitments have been made yet,” Wanniappa added.
The Chinese outbound travel market is expected to fully recover by 2025, with projections suggesting that outbound travellers could exceed 130 million, approaching or even surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
Sri Lanka anticipates a full tourism recovery by 2025, targeting three million tourist arrivals for the year, with the Chinese market contributing an estimated 150,000–200,000 visitors, based on current data and recovery trends.
“The high tourism potential and growing demand for Sri Lanka as a destination could be a strong motivating factor for increased flight operations,” Wanniappa explained.
According to the China National Tourism Administration and the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute, Chinese outbound travel typically surges by over 50% between the last week of January and the beginning of February, aligning with the Lunar New Year period.
Wanniappa also noted that the Sri Lankan Government has introduced concessions on departure tax for flights operating out of Mattala, Jaffna, and Ratmalana airports, potentially incentivising further expansion of airline services.
He expressed optimism about Sri Lanka’s future aviation connectivity, predicting increased links to major markets in India and China, along with potential expansion into the African continent.

OSL take:
There has been a steady increase in the number of flights being operated by many international airlines to Sri Lanka in the past few months given the expansion in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry as well as the overall expansion of the country’s economy. Several policy decisions taken by the Sri Lankan government to increase incentives provided to international airlines in a bid to support the growth of the country’s aviation industry have also resulted in the increase in flights being operated to Sri Lanka. Apart from the growth in the local tourism industry and the expansion in economic activities, the growth in the aviation industry has opened up a host of direct and indirect business/investment opportunities to the country. These opportunities range from the development of infrastructure and supplementary infrastructure facilities to meet the requirements of the increasing demand to providing technical expertise and technological advancements to be on par with global standards. The expanding airport and aviation industries in Sri Lanka has also figures prominently in Sri Lanka’s development programme that include the upgrading and expansion of key airports in the country including the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) as well as regional airports in order to improve international and domestic connectivity as Sri Lanka targets on becoming a hub in the South Asian region. Given Sri Lanka’s geographical positioning in the Indian Ocean, the strong trade ties, expanding economy, growing tourism industry and the country’s growing overall business potential, the increasing business/investment opportunities in the country’s airport and aviation industries present lucrative ventures for foreign businesses/investors.

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Article Code : VBS/AT/20250205/Z_1

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