Srilankan eyes expansion in Pakistan
9 July 2012 04:36 am
SriLankan Airlines plans to expand its presence in Pakistan with promises of frequent flights from Islamabad and Lahore in the near future, Pakistani media reports said.
SriLankan Airlines Chief Marketing Officer G T Jeyaseelan was quoted as telling a press conference in Pakistan that Pakistan was an extremely important market for his carrier which operates a daily flight between Karachi and Colombo.
His remarks came soon after SriLankan Airlines opened its new office here on Friday morning following the appointment of the TCB Aviation Limited as the Airline’s General Sales Agent (GSA) in Pakistan. “We look forward to a new era in our operations in Pakistan with the appointment of TCB Aviation as our GSA,” SriLankan’s Head of Worldwide Sales Lal Perera was quoted as saying. SriLankan’s Country Manager in Pakistan Shermal Perera stressed the fact that his airlines is hoping to show more growth following its partnership with TCB Aviation.
“I’m proud to announce that SriLankan Airlines having started with three flights to Pakistan in 1980 have expanded its frequency to daily flights to Sri Lanka and beyond.
“While welcoming TCB Aviation to the SriLankan family, in partnership we look forward to taking our product and service to higher levels,” he said.
TCB Aviation CEO Ali Majid predicted a bright future for the SriLankan-TCB partnership. “I call it a partnership which I’m sure will be beneficial for the both of us. This day is a landmark for the beginning of a great partnership between our two organisations in times ahead.
“We aim to extend the services of the airline beyond Karachi and plan to open fully functional offices in Lahore and Islamabad by September this year. Our efforts will be to develop our business to a level that will further increase frequency of the SriLankan flights to Pakistan.”
Earlier, a traditional oil lamp ceremony took place at the brand new office of SriLankan Airlines on Friday morning. Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro was the chief guest at the ribboncutting ceremony. Also present at the wellattended event were senior SriLankan Airlines officials, Lalith De Silva and a number of bank presidents.