SriLankan Airlines to introduce direct flights to Madurai from January 15 2012

The Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry has secured an assurance from SriLankan Airlines that it would introduce direct flight from Sri Lanka to Madurai, most probably from January 15, 2012. The assurance was given by Nishantha Wickramasinghe, Chairman, SriLankan Airlines.

According to a report in The Hindu Business Line, recounting the efforts taken persistently through the past year to make Madurai an international airport since the inauguration of world-class new terminal building at the airport, the Chamber in a statement said that on hearing about the presence of the Chairman of SriLankan Airlines at Tiruchi, a delegation from the Chamber met the Chairman and through a power-point presentation elaborated on the potential of passengers and cargo traffic from the southern districts of Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka and transfers thereon to all parts of the world, since Sri Lanka had good connectivity internationally.

The statement also mentioned that Wickramasinghe had agreed to introduce a direct flight from Sri Lanka to Madurai since the airport bilaterial agreement between India and Sri Lanka has included Madurai Airport and Srilankan Airlines have sufficient rights to introduce more flights to Indian destinations.

A request was made to him to introduce the direct flight from January 15, as Pongal gift to the people of Tamil Nadu, particularly southern Tamil Nadu and he assured that he would confirm the inaugural date within two days, the statement added.

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