Emirates eyes India-SL route

GOVERNMENTS OF INDIA AND SRI LANKA EXPECTED TO LIBERALISE DIRECT FLIGHT OPERATIONS FOR THIRD-PARTY CARRIERS SUCH AS EMIRATES EMIRATES HAS 167 FLIGHTS TO INDIA PER WEEK AND 28 TO SRI LANKA PROPOSED 5-YEAR BUSINESS PLAN FOR LOSS-MAKING SRILANKAN INCLUDES ELIMINATION OF UNPROFITABLE ROUTES, NOTABLY 15 INDIAN ROUTES

- By NISHEL FERNANDO

Emirates has expressed its openness to increasing direct flight operations between Sri Lanka and various parts of India while emphasising that the respective governments of India and Sri Lanka need to grant the necessary permissions.

Emirates Senior Vice President West Asia and Indian Ocean Essa Sulaiman Ahamed shared these remarks with Mirror Business at Bandaranaike International Airport this week.

He clarified that it is up to the governments in India and Sri Lanka to liberalise direct flight operations for third-party carriers such as Emirates.

"That's between the two governments," he stated.

"We already fly into India. We have 167 flights a week (to India). We fly here (Sri Lanka) 28 flights a week. A significant number of people and airlines, including SriLankan Airlines, IndiGo Airlines and SpiceJet, travel between the two nations," he added.

Currently, the 167 weekly flights to India and 28 weekly flights to Sri Lanka are facilitated through the existing air service agreements between the two governments. These bilateral agreements govern the permissions for airlines to operate specific routes, outlining the number of flights, destinations and other operational aspects for carriers from both nations. This comes under the Fifth Freedom of the Air.