Indigo to fly twice daily between Jaffna-Chennai by end of March
The Morning: Indian low-cost airline Indigo is expected to operate two daily flights between Jaffna International Airport in Palaly and Chennai, by the end of March, Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka Deputy Director General Rayhan Wanniappa told The Daily Morning Business.
“Indigo Airlines is planning to operate double daily flights to Jaffna from Chennai with effect from the end of March 2025,” Wanniappa said, commenting on the prospective expansions to connectivity in 2025.
India has consistently been the largest source of international tourists to Sri Lanka in recent history.
Last year, Sri Lanka saw a total of 416,974 Indian tourist arrivals, 20.3% of the total arrivals of the year, making India the top source market for tourists, for Sri Lanka.
Moreover, SriLankan Airlines shifted its country office from New Delhi to Chennai last year, in a bid to promote Jaffna as a new tourism hub in South India.
The airline’s Colours of Jaffna campaign received the gold award in the Marketing-Career category at the 2024 Pacific Asia Travel Association Awards.
SriLankan Airlines CEO Richard Nuttall described the region as one of the airline’s most critical markets, particularly in the post-pandemic tourism recovery phase.
Sri Lanka however, missed its 2024 target of 2.3 million tourists, and only saw 2.05 million tourist arrivals. This year, it anticipates a full tourism recovery, targeting three million tourist arrivals.
The month of January already saw 252,761 tourists visiting the country, surpassing all previous records, with 43,375 tourists from India.
Commenting on capacity expansions to handle the projected influx of tourists for the year, Wanniappa said that the Katunayake Airport phase II is to re-commence towards the end of the year.
“Construction of the Katunayake Airport phase II is scheduled to re-commence later this year, which will facilitate passenger handling to a greater extent.”
He also added that the government is exploring the possibility of establishing temporary measures that will facilitate passenger handling in the interim at BIA, until phase II is completed.
“There will definitely be more connectivity to India and China to large aviation markets there, along with connectivity to the African continent.”
OSL take:
Sri Lanka is currently witnessing an expansion in its economy that has resulted in the steady growth in key economic sectors as well. All these have resulted in many foreign businesses/investors showing an increased interest in doing business with Sri Lanka while there’s also a steady growth in the country’s tourism industry. The growth in business, trade, investment and tourism sectors in Sri Lanka could be witnessed by the increase in the number of flights being operated by international airlines to the country. Along with the overseas promotional campaigns being carried out by local authorities to attract more foreign investments to the country, Sri Lanka’s geographical positioning in the Indian Ocean and the strong trade ties enjoyed with other countries, have all placed Sri Lanka on a path to becoming a hub in the South Asian region. Realizing the growth potential in Sri Lanka, local authorities are focused on further uplifting and expanding operations at the key airports located island wide with the aim of improving domestic and international connectivity. This has created a new set of business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka’s airport and aviation sectors as well. However, the move by Indigo to increase the number of flights operated between India and Jaffna in Sri Lanka’s north, indicates a further expansion in business/investment opportunities between Sri Lanka and India. Foreign businesses/investors while exploring the many business/investment opportunities emerging in Sri Lanka, could also look at setting up bases in Sri Lanka to engage with India using the strong ties between the two countries.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20250214/Z_2 |