Colombo, March 6 (newsin.asia) – SriLankan Airlines, Sri Lanka’s national air carrier, on Friday said it is temporarily suspending its services between
Sri Lanka and China from March 10 to April 30 due to current market conditions driven by significant reduction in worldwide travel to and from China.
The airline said it continued to fly to China after many airlines suspended services or reduced frequencies, including four Chinese airlines that operate between Colombo and China. The Government of China has also imposed restrictions on overseas travel of its own citizens.
“The situation is being continuously evaluated on an ongoing basis and SriLankan intends to recommence services as soon as the situation becomes commercially viable,” the airline said.
“Accordingly, SriLankan stands ready to re-commence operations even prior to April 30 if the current market conditions are to normalize,” it added.
The airline has been operating services to three cities in China, namely Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. It earlier reduced its frequencies to these cities with effect from February 6.
These decisions, which are on a temporary basis, have been taken as per SriLankan’s long-held commercial policies, as the current seat factors (passengers per flight) to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou are not sufficient to cover the cost of these operations, the airlines said.
