Meeting at the recently concluded SATTE in New Delhi, V. Ravindran, Regional Manager, SriLankan Airlines, talked about the future plans of the airline, especially with regards to the India market and what are their expectations from 2020. Here is a BOTT Exclusive on all that the airline has in store for the customers in times ahead.
Priyanka Saxena Ray
SriLankan Airlines, the official airline of the beautiful island country of Sri Lanka offers some of the best connections from India to not just the destination but also beyond into various parts of the world. The airline currently operates out of 11 cities in India (to Colombo) which include four flights a day from Chennai; a double daily flight from Mumbai and Bengaluru, and one flight daily each from Madurai, Tiruchi, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram.
The airline has also recently increased its double daily frequency between Colombo and New Delhi to three times a day now. It has four flights a week from Coimbatore and Chennai and six flights a week from Hyderabad. From Kolkata it has three flights a week to Colombo.
“By the end of 2020, we are looking at starting operations from Ahmedabad and Calicut as going forward we are going to lay more focus on Tier-II and Tier-III cities. Supplementing this, we are also planning to increase frequency from our existing markets of Kolkata, Hyderabad and Coimbatore,” shared V. Ravindran.
Ravi heads the overall marketing and administration functions of the airline operation in India and Bangladesh. Working in conjunction with the global team in Sri Lanka, he has been instrumental in strengthening the position of SriLankan Airlines in the region of China and has successfully executed the growth plan in that Region covering Beijing, Shanghai & Guangzhou. Armed with 19 years of experience in the aviation industry, Ravi started his career with SriLankan Airlines as a trainee in year 2000 followed by a wide variety of divisions and multiple management functions in marketing, sales and operations, within the organisation. He was also the Country Manager to Oman and China, Sales Manager to Cochin.
“After the tragedy that had stuck our country last year, we are glad to note that India was quick to bounce back. India market is one of the most important markets for us and we are constantly looking for ways and means to strengthen this relationship further. Going forward we are going to majorly focus on internet promotion and digital social media marketing. Last year we had 11-11, which was a one day promotion with special offers and benefits and it garnered good response. In the future also we will do event specific promotion,” he shared.
