Ukraine’s ‘SkyUp’ launches charter flights to Sri Lanka’s Hambantota Airport
Daily FT: The Ukrainian airline ‘SkyUp Airlines’ has made its first flight from Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, to the Hambantota Airport.
The charter flight program will last until 17 March 2022 and will provide only the option of a 10-day round-trip departing from Kyiv. The flight lasts 10 hours 40 minutes and provides a technical stop at Sharjah Airport (UAE). Flights will be operated four times a week – on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Resort destinations with a warm climate are especially popular among Ukrainian tourists, including Sri Lanka. After a nine-month lockdown in Sri Lanka, Ukrainians became the first tourists to visit the island on a SkyUp flight in late 2020.
According to the State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine, the number of Ukrainians traveling to Sri Lanka is growing every year: if in 2020 the island was visited by 1.7 thousand Ukrainian tourists, in the first half of 2021, this number was more than 2.5 thousand people, who flew to rest in Sri Lanka. They are attracted by the incredible beaches, exotic greenery, and the soothing sound of ocean waves.
SkyUp Airlines is a private Ukrainian airline, the ultimate beneficiaries of which are Tetiana, Yuriy, and Oleksandr Alba. The company works on a hybrid model – operates charter flights and scheduled flights. The flight program includes more than 60 international destinations from Kyiv and the regions – Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, and Lviv. The network of routes covers Europe, North Africa, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.
SkyUp offers its passengers several fare plans for travel with numerous discounts. The possibility of changing the departure date will add confidence in the planning of the trip: passengers who buy tickets at Standard and Flex fares can change the departure date conveniently and profitably. A special button ‘Change departure date’ works in the personal account of the passenger registered on the skyup.aero website. The departure date in the Standard fare can be changed once with a surcharge, in the Flex fare the change of the departure date is free-of-charge three times for one flight.
To make each trip even more enjoyable and delicious, SkyUp, together with the international catering agency Do & CO, have developed a special menu that will make you feel like you’re in a restaurant. Titled ‘SkyBox’, it provides for all tastes, as well as special menus for those in need: Muslim, vegetarian, dietary, kosher etc. For the little passengers, SkyUp has prepared a Kids Box with a delicious main course and dessert.
OSL take:
International airlines have been increasing the number of flights operated to Sri Lanka indicating a clear increase in foreign travellers to the country. While economic activities in Sri Lanka are on the increase, there’s a steady growth in tourist arrivals to the country as well. All these are indicative of an expansion in business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka. While Sri Lanka has been slotted among the Top 10 island destinations in the world making it an attractive post Covid travel destination, the country is also positioning itself as a business hub in the South Asian region. Foreign businesses/investors could therefore confidently explore business opportunities in Sri Lanka.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/07012022/Z_1 |