RIYADH: SriLankan Airlines announced on Wednesday the addition of another flight to its Colombo-Dammam route, thus adding to the lucrative Middle Eastern tourist market. Beginning Wednesday, which is the start of the new winter schedule, the total number of flights on this route will be four per week. The flight leaves Colombo at 1840 on Wednesday and arrives in Dammam at 2130 the same day. The return flight leaves Dammam at 2240 on Wednesday and arrives in Colombo at 0610 on Thursday. “Sri Lanka is an increasingly popular tourist destination, not only among Saudis, but also among the large number of expatriates living and working in the Kingdom. In addition to the tourist traffic, there are large numbers of expatriate workers in Dammam who use SriLankan to travel home. With the end of Sri Lanka’s war and the great tourist potential the country has, we are confident of a large number of visitors from Dammam this season,” SriLankan Airlines Sales Manager, Prathap Balakrishnan said.

The new Colombo-Dammam flight will not only promote tourist traffic between our two countries, but also facilitate onward leisure and business travel from Colombo. “Our flights are well connected to such Indian destinations as Madras, Trivandrum, Trichirapally, Bangalore and other Asian destinations like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and the Maldives,” Prathap added. With the new flight, Sri Lanka now offers 8 weekly flights from Saudi Arabia — 4 from Dammam, 2 from Riyadh and 2 from Jeddah.