Air India connects Colombo and Delhi with a non-stop flight
23 Jun 2015 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Zahara Haris
Heralding a new era in aviation and tourism between the two neighbouring countries, India’s national carrier Air India launched a direct, non-stop flight on the Colombo-Delhi-Colombo route.
Flight AI 276 from Colombo will depart for Delhi at 0820 hours, arriving Delhi at 1205 hours. The return flight AI 275 from Delhi will leave at 1200 hours and reach Colombo at 1535 hours except on Wednesdays when the flight will leave Delhi at 1330 hours and reach Colombo at 1715 hours.
Speaking at the press briefing Air India Commercial Director Pankaj Srivastava said, “This is going to be a daily flight. Every day there’s same time departure except on Wednesdays where due to operational reasons we have to reschedule the departure from Delhi by an hour and a half.”
Delhi being the hub for Air India, will provide passengers from Sri Lanka, connections to flights of Air India and other Star Alliance member airlines to Europe, the USA, Far East and Australia. Likewise, passengers arriving from these international destinations will get a convenient connection to Sri Lanka on this new flight.
“We are very happy to announce this particular connection is made in a such a way the passengers from Colombo can actually use the Delhi hub and connect on to most of the European flights because most of the Europeans flights to Delhi operate only in the afternoon and this flight arrives in Delhi at around 12 noon, which provides connection to all the European destinations and likewise all the European flights are coming to Delhi in the morning and that will provide connection to these flights to Colombo,” he added.
In addition, the new flights to Delhi will also provide immediate connections to many domestic destinations in India where Air India has introduced competitive fares.
Speaking to Mirror Business, Indian Cricketer Robin Uthappa, who is an employee of Air India, said he is delighted to be part of this event.
“They (Air India) are my employers, basically I know them for seven to eight years now. Most of the time I have been playing cricket and really don’t get time to go to the office as we have to play 11 months a year. So whenever if we can give them something this is the way to give them back, so very happy to come down here to be part of this,” he said.
