SriLankan Airlines’ expands its reach in Central Asia with its latest codeshare agreement with Siberian Airlines (S7) which came into effect on 17th  December 2013.

S7 Airlines, has its headquarters in Novosibirsk, the 3rd largest city in the Russian Federation, and is a member of the leading oneworld alliance. S7 has a wide network of destinations in Russia and in other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), as well as in Europe. It has the largest domestic reach in the CIS region.

The codeshare will allow SriLankan Airlines’ (oneworld member elect) passengers to Moscow to access key cities such as Novosibirsk, St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Irkutsk, Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk in the Russian Federation, as well as to Kiev – the capital of Ukraine,  utilising S7’s strong network. Similarly, S7 Airlines will place its code on SriLankan’s flights between Moscow and Colombo. S7 Airlines will also code share on SriLankan Airlines’ flights to Bangkok and Male via Colombo.

Highlighting the importance of this agreement, SriLankan Airlines’ Chief Executive Office, Kapila Chandrasena said “ The Russian Federation and the Ukraine are very important markets for us and we are very excited at the prospect of accessing key destinations in this region together with S7 Airlines, a highly reputed airline serving a global network, particularly many destinations in the CIS region. We believe that this partnership will be of great benefit to both airlines.”

Vadim Besperstov, S7 Airlines’ Deputy CEO for Strategy said: “ We are glad to announce this partnership with SriLankan Airlines. S7 Airlines’ passengers will discover new travel destinations on our code-share flights. We are looking forward to welcoming SriLankan on board of the oneworld airline alliance and offer even more benefits for our passengers and members of frequent flyer programs.”

The city of Novosibirsk is the administrative capital of Siberia and S7 Airlines operates from the Novosibirsk Tolmachevo Airport (OVB) located in western Russia.

SriLankan Airlines network has expanded to 73 destinations in 36 countries.