SriLankan Airlines’ inaugural flight on November 16

Seychellois and foreigners will soon be able to fly directly to Sri Lanka as the venture which was first promised during President James Michel’s visit to Sri Lanka last year will shortly bear fruit. 

Sri Lanka’s number one airline will soon fly between Colombo and Mahe, code shared with its twin airline Mihin Lanka. 

This was announced during the inauguration of the airline’s office in the ex-Qatar Airways premises in the Ebrahim Building in Victoria on Wednesday evening.

SriLankan Airlines will connect Seychelles with two weekly three-and-a-half-hour flights on Wednesdays and Saturdays, with the first in the afternoon of Saturday November 16. 

Vision Voyages is the local travel agency which has been appointed as the general sales agents of SriLankan Airlines and since this week, reservation supervisor Dervin Chang Pen Tive and his all-Seychellois staff have been busy selling return tickets at a price of R7,018.

Mr Chang Pen Tive said the airline will for the moment offer only economy seats on its 180-passenger capacity A320 aircraft. Business class seats will only be added with the introduction of a new aircraft early next year.

The managing director of Vision Voyages, Shirish Dhanjee, has described the occasion as a historic one.
“We are very happy that Seychelles has welcomed us as our first destination in Africa. 

This is for us a historical moment as for many years an Asian airline has not flown here. Sri Lanka is a fantastic and friendly destination and Seychellois do not require visa to travel there,” said Mr Dhanjee.

“So, SriLankan Airlines and Mihin Lanka will open the way to various vacation and business opportunities, which will be a win-win situation for both Sri Lankans and Seychellois,” he added.
On his part, the chairman of the agency, Ahmed Didi, said SriLankan Airlines will create opportunities going beyond Sri Lanka.

“It has been a long time since I have been trying to develop this route. Since I partnered with Shirish Dhanjee in Vision Voyages, we have been working very hard in making this route and flight a reality. The direct route will offer opportunities beyond Sri Lanka as it will also open on other untapped Asian markets such as China, Korea, Japan and India, as well as other Far East, Middle East and European destinations,” said Mr Didi.

“This is big news for Seychelles as it offers enormous potential for cost effective relaxation, shopping, medicaI treatment, night life, studies or others. I have no doubt that this will be a successful operation as the Seychelles Tourism Board is also working very hard to promote Seychelles in Sri Lanka,” continued Mr Didi.

Let us just hope that SriLankan Airlines will permit Seychellois travellers to discover the land which has been branded as “the wonder of Asia” and will carry even more visitors to Seychelles.

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