Lankan Captain to pilot inaugural BA flight to Colombo

By Sunimalee Dias

A Sri Lankan captain on April 15 will pilot British Airways (BA)’s first flight to Colombo, resuming after a lapse of 15 years.

The flight from Gatwick will be to Colombo via Male with direct flights planned next year. The airline will fly thrice weekly on this route.

Capt. Kiran Mediwaka will captain the inaugural flight that will also have onboard British Airways CEO Keith Williams along with a delegation of about five officials from the airline and around 30 journalists from the UK, the airline’s Sri Lankan GSA Hayleys Aviation Director/General Manager Gerard Victoria said. The visiting journalists will travel to Colombo, Kandy and the South during their 4-day stay in the country and would provide extensive coverage on the Sri Lankan experience, it was stated. Commenting on why such a high level delegation headed by the airline’s CEO would travel on the inaugural flight, it was pointed out that this was mainly because of the bilateral relations between the two countries and since Sri Lanka was a former colony of the UK.

The BA Colombo office will open on March 14 and the Hayleys staff will supervise ground handling at the airport with upto 23 staff. Currently Hayleys also supervises ground handling for Oman Air and Air India Express.

Currently around 100,000 people travel to Colombo from the UK, and the latter generates the second largest number of tourist arrivals to the country as well, Mr. Victoria pointed out. The airline would be marketing the destination as a two-stop holiday both in Male and Colombo as the existing flight to Male is being extended.

An initial load factor of around 25 per cent will disembark in Colombo on the Boeing 777 – 200, the long range twin engine jet aircraft, that would be used on these long haul flights comprising 42 Business class seats, 24 World Traveller Plus and 203 Economy or World Traveller passenger capacity, he said.

The carrier is already carrying out promotional campaigns to promote the destination out of London in its in-flight magazine; at the Gatwick and Heathrow airports; information on the destination through its regular mails to Frequent Flyers; and advertisements on the reverse of the BA boarding pass.

He said the airline is offering special fares with about 5-10 per cent discounts for a limited period for passengers on BA flights out of Colombo.

The airline would be mostly targeting Sri Lankan expatriates travelling to from the UK, US and Canada, Mr. Victoria observed adding that with the opening up of the North there was more potential from Tamils willing to travel as well.

In addition, he pointed out that the airline has understood there was a “slight improvement in yields in terms of revenue” since they last left the country.

On moving to Mattala, Mr. Victoria said though BA was approached by the authorities to fly into the southern airport, they wanted to ensure that the airport was totally operational before moving in.