Sri Lankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka and a member of the oneworld alliance, reaffirming its stature as a leading airline in the Indian sub-continent, won the prestigious ‘Asia’s Leading Airline to the Indian Ocean’ title for the third consecutive year at World Travel Awards Asia & Oceania Gala Ceremony, held on Saturday (12) in PhuQuoc, Vietnam.
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The other contenders for the award were Bangkok Airways, Cathay Pacific, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Hong Kong Airlines, Korean Air, Malaysia Airlines, SilkAir and Singapore Airlines.
Sri Lankan Airlines Chief Executive Officer Vipula Gunatilleka said, “This prestigious award reinforces the success of our efforts to remain a leading carrier in the Indian Ocean region. Our connectivity strength across other key regions has always made us a preferred choice of travel to and from the Indian Subcontinent via our Colombo hub.”
The Airlines’ continuous marketing drive through the execution of insightful and innovative marketing campaigns to promote travel movements into the Indian Ocean region, resulted in this achievement.
The Award proves SriLankan’s consolidated presence in the South Asian region, strongly supported by its connectivity of 121 flights a week to 11 Indian cities, namely Chennai, Trivandrum, Tiruchirappalli, Mumbai, Bangalore, New Delhi, Cochin, Madurai, Kolkata, Coimbatore and Hyderabad. The Airline also operates to other popular cities such as Dhaka, Karachi and Lahore.
The Maldives has been Sri Lanka’s extended home market with its connectivity to Male of 21 flights a week, facilitating leisure-seekers from its extensive network of Middle East, the Europe, the Far East and Australia. SriLankan also became the first Airline to connect Gan Island of South Maldives with the world, thus becoming the only airline that operates out of two points in the Maldives.
As a oneworld member, the national carrier also had the privilege of adding Tiruchirappalli and Gan Island to the extensive network of the alliance.
This year, the Airline made a range of connectivity enhancements in the region, such as the addition of three frequencies between Colombo and New Delhi which currently translates to 18 flights a week and the direct flight connecting Japan’s leisure travellers from Narita to Malé.
World Travel Awards was established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all key sectors of the travel, tourism and hospitality industries. Today, the World Travel Awards brand is recognised globally as the ultimate hallmark of industry excellence.
World Travel Awards celebrates its 26th anniversary year in 2019. Its annual program is renowned as the most prestigious and comprehensive in the global industry. Each year World Travel Awards covers the globe with its Grand Tour – a series of regional gala ceremonies to recognise excellence within each continent, culminating in a Grand Final at the end of the year.
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