The last SriLankan Airlines flight between Paris and Colombo will take place on 6 November, one week after the end of the airline's operations to Frankfurt: this is the decision taken by the airline's management and, above all, by the Sri Lankan government, which intends to "stop financing constant losses", as explained in the press release published on 27 June. London thus becomes the airline's main - and only - gateway to the European market, with its Airbus A330-300s operating non-stop daily flights to the Sri Lankan capital.
The fall in fuel prices will not therefore have been enough to preserve these two European services, with SriLankan Airlines explicitly pointing the finger at the depreciation of the euro against the dollar, the fall in fares on the European market and competition from the Gulf carriers. These same Gulf carriers will nonetheless serve as relays for SriLankan Airlines, which intends to rely on its codeshare agreements with Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways. These agreements will enable the airline to provide connections to European destinations hitherto served via Paris and Frankfurt.
But the priorities of SriLankan Airlines are now to be found in other latitudes: the company's strategy is clearly targeting the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and the Far East, regions which "will remain the company's core markets, whose potential for expansion it will continue to explore", according to the press release published on Monday.
