SriLankan Airlines will realize a long-held dream when its inaugural flight takes off to Bangalore in southern India on the morning of July 15th, 2002.
An Airbus A320 will take off from the Bandaranaike International Airport with special guests as well as revenue passengers at 0740 am for Bangalore, better known in recent times as the silicon valley of India.
Apart from the city's progress in IT, it also known for its ancient palaces and gardens and its trendy night life.
"Bangalore has always been our dream in southern India," says G T Jeyaseelan, SriLankan's Head of Commercial. 'We have a many Sri Lankans who are eager to travel to this beautiful city for different reasons. There are pilgrims travelling to Puttarpathy and White Fields, business travellers and holidaymakers. SriLankan will also generate tourism from the state of Karnataka to Sri Lanka. We are therefore looking forward to the Bangalore launch."
SriLankan will offer three non-stop services each week from Colombo to Bangalore, every Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Flying time will be approximately one and a half hours.
On Mondays the flight will leave Colombo at 0740 hours and reach Bangalore at 0840 hours. The return flight will leave at 0950 hours and arrive in Colombo at 1150 hours.
The Thursday and Saturday flights have common timing and are scheduled for night departure. They will leave Colombo at 2100 hours and reach Bangalore at 2200 hours. The return flights will leave Bangalore at 2310 hours and arrive in Colombo at 0110 hours the following day.
SriLankan Airlines will soon offer promotional packages to Bangalore for its customers in Sri Lanka.
SriLankan flies to five other Indian destinations - New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Trichy and Trivandrum.
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