Jet Airways has announced the launch of a daily direct flight from Bengaluru to Colombo with effect from January 5, 2017, making Bengaluru the second Indian city after Mumbai to be linked to Colombo and the airline’s third daily service to the Sri Lankan capital.
Jet Airways flight 9W 278 will depart Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport at 0040 hrs and arrive in Colombo at 0210 hrs (local time). The flight 9W 277 will leave Colombo at 0310 hrs (local time) to arrive in Bengaluru at 0435 hrs (local time).
Sri Lanka is fast emerging as a global IT-BPM destination of choice in number of key focus domain areas. The island nation is ranked amongst the top 50 global outsourcing destinations by AT Kearney. Whereas, Bengaluru is an established and key IT city having presence of global companies. These business activities are said to ensure robust air traffic growth to and from Bengaluru.
Jayaraj Shanmugam, chief commercial officer, Jet Airways, said, “Jet Airways is delighted to launch a direct service between Bengaluru and Colombo. With increasing economic activity between India and Sri Lanka, Jet Airways realised the gap in the connectivity and plugged it with this direct connection. Guests between these two destinations will be offered the best in-flight product and service excellence.”
In 2015, air passenger traffic between India and Sri Lanka was close to one million and from Sri Lanka to India more than 963,000. With development in SAARC region higher than the global rate and economic ties between India and Sri Lanka strengthening, air traffic growth is expected to increase every year.
The airline will deploy a Boeing 737-800 Next Generation aircraft on this route.
