The A320 will join the narrow-body fleet serving the Indian subcontinent region, where SriLankan plans to re-launch services to the southern city of Kochi next March.
This would be the airline’s seventh destination in India, to which SriLankan Airlines increased its number of frequencies from the winter 2010 tourist season.
India is the island’s largest tourism market, with nearly 100,000 visitors in the first 10 months of 2010, up 50 percent over the same period in the previous year.
The new Airbus is the sixth aircraft to be acquired since the government took back control of the national carrier’s management from Emirates airline two and a half years ago, and the third in the last five months.
The next aircraft, also an A320, is expected to be acquired in the first quarter of 2011, the airline said.
The new aircraft will undergo some