6 February 2020 09:18 am
SriLankan Airlines yesterday said it is rationalising its services to China in accordance with the current market conditions, with a temporary reduction of frequencies to several cities.
“This is to better reflect the present passenger demand in the wake of a significant reduction in the number of Chinese travellers venturing overseas following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus epidemic,” a statement by the airline said.
The reduction of flights is effective from February 6, 2020, until March 28, 2020.
Many airlines have already reduced frequencies to China due to the drop in demand, reasons for which include restrictions by the Government of China on overseas travel of its
own citizens.
These include four Chinese airlines that operate between Colombo and several Chinese cities.SriLankan currently operates services to three cities in China, namely Beijing, Shanghai and Canton.
The number of weekly flights to Beijing is being reduced from four to two, Shanghai from four to two and Canton from seven to three.SriLankan is deploying the aircraft released from the China flights to increase capacity in other regions, including upgrading of the Colombo-Abu Dhabi sector to a wide-body aircraft and to advance scheduled heavy maintenance activities on several aircraft.
SriLankan’s route network spans 116 cities in 51 countries. As a member of the oneworld global airline alliance, it also connects passengers to over a thousand cities in more than 180 countries and territories through 13 member airlines.