Sydney Airport is one of the world’s longest continuously operated commercial airports and the busiest airport in Australia, handling 42.6 million passengers and 348,904 aircraft movements in 2016/17. The airport connects to more than 90 destinations around the world.

Australia is among the top 10 tourism-generating markets of Sri Lanka. Tourist arrivals from Australia for the first 10 months of this year have been recorded as 71,140 while it was 110,928 for the whole of 2018, according to Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) statistics. The Australian tourist market demonstrated a faster recovery rate than other markets following the Easter attacks. Aussie travellers also use the direct flight service to Colombo for convenient onward connections to the entire South Asian region, with SriLankan being the largest foreign carrier to both India and the Maldives. There has also been a significant increase in the number of Sri Lankans travelling to Australia, visiting relatives or on vacation, although statistics are not readily available. Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Chairman (SLTPB) Kishu Gomes told The Sunday Morning Business in July that over the next two to three years, Australia has potential to become the second or third largest tourism market for Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka became more accessible to Australians in October 2017, when SriLankan Airlines launched Airbus A330-200 operations in, the first direct flight between Colombo and Melbourne. The 10-hour flight features 18 Business Class seats and 251 Economy Class seats. The Sydney direct flights are part of SriLankan Airline’s Turnaround Plan. The airline is also planning to relaunch flights to Frankfurt, but this is still in the evaluation stage due to the Easter Sunday incidents, an official from SriLankan Airlines told The Sunday Morning Business. There have been continuous requests from passengers for direct flights to Frankfurt, according to the airline. Its last flight to Frankfurt was operated in October 2016 and flights were stopped after that in an effort to financially secure the airline. Germany has long been one of the top five tourism-generating markets of Sri Lanka and was among the top five countries in SLTDA’s latest monthly tourist arrival report for the month of October as well. Tourist arrivals from Germany were 7,820 for the first 10 months of this year while it was 156,888 in 2018. Moreover, under the Turnaround Plan, SriLankan will further strengthen its position as the largest foreign carrier to India with the launch of services to Ahmedabad. SriLankan also intends to stretch its wings in Southeast Asia with a new service to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in Vietnam, while plans to return to Paris and other earlier destinations continue to be under consideration. Following the appointment of a new Board of Directors in April 2018, SriLankan began implementing a wide range of initiatives to curtail losses and improve the customer experience, despite many challenges including the impact on tourist arrivals from the Easter Sunday attacks, volatile fuel prices, and the depreciation of the Sri Lankan rupee. One of the first steps that were firmly implemented by the new Board was the restructuring of the national carrier’s management team, with proven experts in the aviation industry being inducted into key positions. This has resulted in the financial performance for the six months ended 30 September 2019 showing an upward trend by reducing losses by more than 50%, with a loss of $ 19 million before interest and withholding tax against a loss of $ 39 million for the same period in the previous year. After interest and withholding tax, the half-yearly group loss was $ 76 million, a $ 10 million improvement over the $ 86 million loss in the previous year. This was achieved despite an overall decline of $ 43 million in group revenue, 70% of which was due to a drop in passenger and cargo revenue.