Turkish Airlines announced a significant enhancement in its flight services with the addition of its sixth weekly flight between Istanbul and Colombo. Effective 14th May 2024, Turkish Airlines will be increasing its weekly flights from Istanbul to Colombo, offering passengers more flexibility and convenience in their travel plans.
This strategic decision comes as part of Turkish Airlines’ commitment to meeting the growing demand for air travel between the two destinations and offering the best possible connection to those who are travelling to Istanbul and beyond.
Offering a seamless travel experience in both its full-flat bed business cabin and economy cabin in its wide-body aircraft, Turkish Airlines is known for its unparalleled levels of service excellence and exquisite culinary offerings on board while connecting travellers to 130 countries around the world.
“We are committed to Sri Lanka as a significant market for Turkish Airlines in the South Asian sub-continent and to our passengers; hence, this significant increase in frequency will offer travellers greater connectivity and more travel options,” said Fatih Bozkurt, Country Director Sri Lanka/Maldives for Turkish Airlines.
After 10 years of operations in Sri Lanka, with a leg stopping over in Male, the airline commenced direct flights from Istanbul, Turkey, to Colombo on 30th October 2023 with 4 weekly flights.
Eng. Athula Galketiya, Chairman of Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) (Pvt) Limited stated: “As Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) (Pvt) Limited, we are happy to announce that by the end of February 2024, Sri Lanka airports had recorded 1,602,417 international passenger movements and 8,946 international aircraft movements. Compared with the same period in 2023, the growth of the increase in international passenger movements in 2024 is approximately 40.39%, while the increase in international aircraft movements is approximately 30.77 %. Comparing the number of tourists who visited Sri Lanka by air in 2023 and 2024, the percentage of tourists arriving in 2023 shows an increase of 104.65 %, and the total tourist Arrivals by Air up to the end of February were 425,532.
Therefore, we are very much thankful to Turkish Airlines for increasing more flights to Colombo will boost our tourism industry further to greater heights, as this connectivity is key for our country to connect European destinations with Turkish Airlines”.