Sri Lankan Airlines drops flights to some Indian cities

Dec 16, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan Airlines is dropping flights to Calicut, Cochin, Coimbatore and Hyderabad, from January 15, but increasing flights to more popular destinations including, Maldives, the airline said. The airline said the suspension of services to the four Indian cities will not affect the country’s tourism or export industry. Flights to Male has been increased, supporting the fruits and vegetables export industry.

"In India the airline continues to serve major destinations including its political capital New Delhi, commercial capital Mumbai, and its IT capital Bangalore," Sri Lankan said in a statement.

"It will also maintain a major presence in Tamil Nadu, the state with closest links to Sri Lanka, through its 15 flights a week to Chennai, and daily flights to Trichy."

SriLankan says it will continue to serve all of the other destinations in its route network, including Southeast Asian destinations and the Far East.

There were also "no significant changes" to the Middle East, and labour traffic to the region will not be affected, the airline said.

It had recently started flying to Rome catering to the ethnic Sri Lankan community in Italy, and also generating tourist traff