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SriLankan Airlines Direct Melbourne to Colombo flight

From 29 October this year, SriLankan Airlines will begin offering direct flights on a daily basis to Colombo from Melbourne.

It is significant, as it will be the only direct route from Australia to Sri Lanka. It will be a welcome development for Australia’ Sri Lankan population – fifty per cent of whom live in Victoria.

Melbourne Airport announced that the flights shall run on an Airbus A330-300, with over 250 economy seats and 27 business class seats in a 2-4-2 arrangement. This announcement was rather awkward. SriLankan’s website said differently – the seats would be a 2-2-2 layout.

Each flight will last 11 hours. An overnight flight from Colombo to Melbourne (Flight UL604) will take off at 11:30pm and arrive at 3:35pm the next day. The return flight (Fight UL605) will leave Tullamarine in the early evening at 4:55pm and arrive late at night at Bandaranaike International Airport at 10:15pm.

SriLankan says a standard priced economy seat would cost $696 each way (starting), and $618 for one-stop flights.

Qantas passengers will cheer, given that Qantas are de facto SriLankan’s partner. They have a combined rewards scheme where Qantas passengers can access a huge range of benefits.

We look forward to welcoming SriLankan aircraft to Australian skies this October.

Photo by Andy Mitchell. Used under a Creative Commons licence.