ECONOMYNEXT – Swiss International Airlines has resumed flying to Sri Lanka from the winter season, with weekly flights the airport agency said as the Indian Ocean island re-opens for tourism with accelerated vaccination.
The first flight LX 8064 operated by an Airbus 340 landed on November 5 with 96 passengers in Colombo from Zurich.
“With the commencement of Swiss International Airlines, it will support to boost the tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka after the pandemic and strengthen the economic cooperation in the areas of trade, investment, finance, education and culture between Switzerland and Sri Lanka,” D. V. Chanaka, State Minister of Aviation and Export Zones Development.
The distance from Zurich to Colombo is 8023 kilometers / 4332 nautical miles with an estimated flight time of nine hours and fifty-six minutes.
Swiss Air will fly to Colombo on every Friday. The flight will have a capacity of 314 seats with 27 seats in Business Class and 287 in Economy.
The economy cabin includes 70 seats with an extra recline and legroom.
The airline was scheduled to operate a twice-weekly service year-round pre-COVID pandemic.
“Gauging from the interest demonstrated now by potential visitors to the island, we are optimistic we could revisit this plan in the not-too-distant future,” Parveen Dassenaike, Chairperson and Managing Director of United Ventures – the General Sales Agent (GSA) for Lufthansa Group in Sri Lanka said.
Sri Lanka has so far vaccinated over 60 percent of the population. Authorities have started to give booster shot with Pfizer vaccine from November to frontline health staff. Hotel sector workers will also be given a booster, officials said. (Colombo/Nov05/2021)