Etihad Airways is resuming flights between Abu Dhabi and Colombo from January 2010, utilising an Airbus A320 on the four times weekly service. With Colombo, the carrier's network will total 58 destinations.
Etihad chief executive James Hogan said he expected this to be good news for the large Sri Lankan expatriate community in the UAE and the Middle East, who will be able to connect quickly and easily back home via Abu Dhabi.
Etihad flight EY266 will depart Abu Dhabi on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 2155, arriving in Colombo's Bandaranaike International Airport at 0345 the following day. Return flight EY267 will depart Colombo on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 0445, arriving in Abu Dhabi at 0800 the same day.
Flight timings have been carefully scheduled for faster and easier onward connections to a number of key destinations in Etihad's network, including Moscow and North America.
With the end of the civil conflict, tourist arrivals have picked up in Colombo. A 30 percent increase was recorded in the months of July and August over the same period last year. The Sri Lanka government is targeting 2.5 million visitors a year by 2016.
For more details on Eithad, visit www.etihad.com
Gigi Onag
