Since resuming flights to Melbourne and Sydney, SriLankan Airlines has served nearly a million passengers travelling to Australia
SriLankan Airlines has taken a significant step towards expanding its presence in Australia by forging a groundbreaking interline partnership with Virgin Australia. The newly announced partnership will allow travellers to seamlessly incorporate select Virgin Australia domestic and international flights into their Sri Lankan Airlines bookings, all under the convenience of a single ticket.
Dimuthu Tennakoon, Head of Worldwide Sales & Distribution of SriLankan Airlines, expressed his enthusiasm for this milestone partnership, saying, “Australia has one of the largest Sri Lankan diasporic communities, which makes our Australian routes incredibly popular all year round.”
Currently, SriLankan Airlines operates daily flights from Colombo to Melbourne and three-weekly flights from Colombo to Sydney. The collaboration with Virgin Australia will open a multitude of opportunities for passengers travelling to Melbourne or Sydney. They will now have the option to connect to several major Australian cities, including Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Cairns, Darwin, Hobart, Hamilton Island, Launceston, Gold Coast, and Perth, all via Virgin Australia. Additionally, passengers can extend their journeys beyond Australia to destinations such as New Zealand, Samoa, and Fiji.
This partnership is a win-win for Sri Lankan and Indian Australians residing in these cities, as they can now embark on their international journeys to Sri Lanka or India with a single SriLankan Airlines booking. The benefits continue with a seamless travel experience that includes a single check-in, even for baggage, at the departure airport, effectively bypassing transit check-in queues.
The introduction of domestic and international interline flight options with Virgin Australia is poised to make Sri Lanka more accessible for Australian outbound tourists. This is a vital customer segment for SriLankan Airlines, and this partnership is expected to stimulate leisure travel to Sri Lanka from Australia. It will also streamline connections for Sri Lanka Airlines’ passengers flying to Australia via Colombo from the Maldives, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
Since resuming flights to Melbourne in October 2017 and Sydney in June 2020, SriLankan Airlines has served nearly a million passengers travelling to Australia. This new partnership marks an exciting chapter in Sri Lanka Airlines’ journey.
