Summary
- SriLankan Airlines has formed an interline partnership with Virgin Australia, allowing customers to add Virgin Australia domestic or international connections to their SriLankan booking.
- The partnership strengthens SriLankan Airlines’ operations in Australia and improves connectivity for Sri Lankan diasporic communities and travelers pursuing higher education.
- Virgin Australia will benefit from the large Sri Lankan population in Australia, with onward connecting traffic from Sydney and Melbourne, as well as expanded travel and tourism flights.
As talk swirls around its probable privatization, SriLankan Airlines has put together another new airline partnership, this time with Australia’s second-largest airline, Virgin Australia. The new partnership was announced late last week and came hot on the heels of a similar agreement with Emirates, which was made public on September 19.
It should be a win-win
SriLankan Airlines announced on September 28 that it had entered a first-ever interline partnership with Virgin Australia. SriLankan Airlines (SriLankan) is currently flying between Sri Lanka and Australia, and it believes the new interline agreement is a sign of its commitment to the market and will strengthen its operations in Australia and beyond.
Photo: Airbus.
SriLankan customers will have the convenience of adding select Virgin Australia domestic or international connections to their SriLankan booking and managing a multi-airline itinerary under a single ticket. SriLankan Airlines Head of Worldwide Sales and Distribution Dimuthu Tennakoon said:
“Australia has one of the largest Sri Lankan diasporic communities, which makes our Australian routes incredibly popular all year around and particularly with people travelling to visit friends and relatives or in pursuit of higher education.
“This partnership will help us make further inroads in the Australian market through improved connectivity and a range of other benefits for our valued customers.”
SriLankan operates daily from Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, to Melbourne and three times weekly to Sydney. Yesterday, SriLankan flight UL606 departed Colombo Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB) at 01:50 and after a 9:40 hour flight touched down in Sydney at 16:00. The flight was operated with a seven-year-old Airbus A330-300, registration 4R-ALR and MSN 1689, that departed Sydney International Airport (SYD) at 17:53 and arrived in Colombo at 23:33, in readiness to its Bangkok flight at 08:10 today.
Fleet data from ch-aviation.com shows that SriLankan has a fleet of 24 aircraft, including an almost equal split between Airbus single-aisle and widebody jets. The airline has four Airbus A330-200s, seven A330-300s, six A320-200s (including one on a wet lease), two A320neos, one A321-200 and four A321neos.
What’s on offer for Virgin Australia?
With such a large Sri Lankan population in Australia, Virgin Australia will benefit from the onward connecting traffic out of Sydney and Melbourne, as well as travel and tourism related flights. SriLankan passengers will be able to connect on Virgin Australia flights to Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Cairns, Darwin, Hobart, Hamilton Island, Launceston, Gold Coast and Perth.
Photo: Preston Fiedler | Simple Flying
After its rebirth, Virgin Australia has also resumed some international services to New Zealand, Samoa and Fiji, which are more options for Sri Lankan passengers arriving in Australia. Overall, Virgin Australia is flying to around 32 domestic destinations and six short-haul international ports, with other Asia-Pacific routes to Bali, Tokyo and Vanuatu.
Sri Lankan and Indian passengers living in Australia will also enjoy seamless travel back to their destinations in Sri Lanka or India, with a single ticket and one bag drop from their home airports right through to the final destination. The partnership will also benefit Virgin Australia outbound passengers with seamless connections on SriLankan flights to the Maldives, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh via Colombo.
Fleet data: ch-aviation.com