SriLankan Airlines entered into its maiden interline partnership with Virgin Australia to strengthen and expand the airline’s network in Australia and offer its passengers extensive connections across Australia and beyond.
Issuing a statement, the Airline stated that the new partnership reaffirms SriLankan’s commitment to Australia and will present customers the convenience of adding and selecting Virgin Australia domestic or international connections to their SriLankan Airlines booking and managing a multi-airline itinerary in a single ticket.
SriLankan Airlines presently operates daily from Colombo to Melbourne and from Colombo to Sydney on a thrice-weekly basis. The partnership will enable passengers flying SriLankan to Melbourne or Sydney to connect to the Australian cities of Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra, Darwin, Cairns, Hobart, Gold Coast, Hamilton Island and Launceston with Virgin Australia domestic flights.
Dimuthu Tennakoon, Head of Worldwide Sales and Distribution of SriLankan Airlines commented on the partnership stating, “Australia has one of the largest Sri Lankan diasporic communities, which makes our Australian routes incredibly popular all year around and particularly with people travelling to visit friends and relatives or in pursuit of higher education. This partnership will help us make further inroads in the Australian market through improved connectivity and a range of other benefits for our valued customers.”
Passengers will also get the option of flying beyond Australia to New Zealand, Samoa and Fiji. This gives new opportunities for the Sri Lankan and Indian Australians living in these cities too as they can now fly out from their local city to Sri Lanka or India with a single SriLankan Airlines booking. Furthermore, passengers can enjoy a seamless journey with a single check-in, including for baggage, at the departure airport and overcome transit check-in queues.
The introduction of domestic and international interline flights options with Virgin Australia will enhance the accessibility to Sri Lanka for Australian outbound tourists too. This partnership will help develop Australian leisure travel to Sri Lanka and will also pave the way for easy connections for SriLankan Airlines passengers flying to Australia via Colombo from Maldives, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. Since re-commencing flights to Melbourne in October 2017 and Sydney in June 2020, nearly one million passengers have travelled with SriLankan Airlines to Australia and the new partnership with Virgin Australia will boost and expand its service to the land down under and beyond.
