Top 12 travel agents along with Omani Ambassador to Sri Lanka
By Zahara Zuhair
Marking sixth year of operations in Sri Lanka, Oman Air, the flagship carrier of the Sultanate of Oman, celebrated its anniversary in a prestigious way in Colombo recently.
The celebration rejoiced many millstones achieved this year including the introduction of the latest addition to its extensive aircraft fleet the 787 Dreamliner on November 18 and the launch of double daily flights from Colombo to Muscat on October 28.
The Dreamliner currently operates flights to Muscat, Frankfurt and Milan.
Speaking at the occasion, Senior Manager Sales Indian Subcontinent Sunil V.A. said that this is just the beginning as they have more things to offer to the passengers in the years to come.
“It is a great pleasure to be in Sri Lanka to be in a country with hospitality to celebrate the sixth anniversary,” he said.
Sri Lanka being the 32nd country to be added to its 50 destination network, it expects to support Sri Lanka’s commercial and tourism sectors by providing direct flights to all key destinations.
Speaking to Mirror Business Oman Air Country Manager Sri Lanka and Maldives Gihan Karunaratne said that they are looking forward to bringing more tourists from the Middle East and Europe to contribute to the growth of tourism in Sri Lanka.
“This year we have brought 14,800 Omani tourists to Sri Lanka compared to 2014 which was 14,700 for the whole year. This year, until October, already we have surpassed that figure. We believe we can finish it with 17,00 tourists,” he said.
He said that for the festive season mainly Europeans will be visiting due to winter and already flights are booked with the special promotions going on in European countries.
“From December 16 to January 10, it will be mainly Europeans,” he noted.
Highlighting their performance for the past six years he said that they started with just four flights and have shown continuous growth since then.
“We started in 2009 and we have extended the capacity. Last month we started two flights a day, 14 flights a week,” he said.
At the ceremony, the top 12 agents who showed higher revenue performance in the years 2014/2015 also were acknowledged.
Oman Air currently offers flights from Colombo to destinations such as Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Doha and Dubai and also has a codeshare partnership with SriLankan Airlines.
