Aeroflot, Russia's flag carrier and largest airline, will relaunch regular non-stop flights to Colombo from October 28, 2018, after the stoppage of regular flights to the city around a decade ago.
The government information department announced today that five weekly flights on state-of-the-art Airbus A330 aircraft will operate under the winter schedule effective through March 30, 2019.
Tickets are now available for purchase online and at travel agents worldwide according to the following schedule: Moscow-Colombo (all times local): – flight SU 0286 will depart Moscow Sheremetyevo (SVO) on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 22:05, and arrive at the Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB) at 9:05.
The return flight SU 0287 will depart Colombo on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 10:45, and arrive at Sheremetyevo at 17:30.
The nine-hour flights are expected to boost leisure and business tourism from Russia to Sri Lanka as it eliminates the need for transit and significantly reduces travel time.
Among the other airlines planning to launch regular services to Sri Lanka in the next two months are Edelweiss (Switzerland) and Vistara (India). The information department said that several other major foreign airlines have also expressed an interest in flying to Sri Lanka while many existing operators have added extra capacity via bigger aircraft and/or more flight frequencies.
Aeroflot, which means “Air Fleet” is the fourth oldest airline in the world, having started operations in July 1923. Incidentally, KLM, the world’s oldest commercial airline (since 1919) has also re-started flights to Sri Lanka.