The Hindu Business Line : SriLankan may extend Colombo-Delhi flight to Lahore

THE national airline of Sri Lanka, SriLankan Airlines, is looking at extending the Colombo-Delhi flight to Lahore. Official sources told Business Line that the Pakistani Government recently allowed the airline to extend the Delhi flight to Lahore.

The permission to extend the flight came barely days before the Pakistan President, General Pervez Musharraf, came to India on a three-day official visit.

While the airline has been given the nod to extend the flight, permission has not been granted to pick up fresh passengers from Delhi en route to Lahore.

"At the moment the airline is examining the proposal. We could extend two of the seven flights that are operated between Delhi-Colombo to Lahore. The extended flight could become operational by this winter," a senior airline official said.

At present, Indian Airlines and Pakistan International Airlines are the only two airlines operating on the Delhi-Lahore route.

The extension of the SriLankan flight to Lahore would be the second city in Pakistan to which the airline would be offering a connection from India. SriLankan recently started a thrice-a-week flight on the Colombo-Mumbai-Karachi sector.

The airline that operates more than 77 flights a week to several cities in India is also looking at operating the larger 295-seater Airbus A-330 aircraft on some of these routes. The airline at present operates the 144-seater Airbus A-320 aircraft to most Indian cities.

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