Qantas and SriLankan Airlines today announced a new codeshare agreement, making it easier for Australians to visit Colombo and surrounding holiday destinations, and creating new options for Sri Lankan travellers to access Australia.

Effective for travel from 26 October 2014*, Qantas will codeshare on SriLankan’s daily Singapore-Colombo service. Customers will be able to connect within 2-3 hours between Qantas operated international flights to Singapore and SriLankan operated flights to the country’s key hub, Colombo.

In turn, SriLankan Airlines will codeshare on Qantas’ daily services between Singapore and Brisbane and Melbourne, and double daily services to Sydney.

Qantas Executive Manager International Sales, Stephen Thompson, said the airline was pleased to offer more travel options for the increasing number of Australians choosing to visit Sri Lanka and beyond to destinations like the Maldives. At the same time, the deal is expected to deliver a boost for local tourism by making Australia more accessible for Sri Lankan visitors.

“Building on the relationship we have with SriLankan through oneworld, we’ll offer customers travelling from Australia more connections to Colombo via Singapore, with the added benefit of a codeshare service. This means more opportunities to earn frequent flyer points and have your baggage checked right through to their destination,” said Mr Thompson.

The new codeshare service with SriLankan Airlines complements Qantas’ existing Singapore-Colombo daily codeshare service operated by partner Emirates, offering customers the choice of either a morning or evening departure from Singapore.

This announcement delivers on Qantas International’s partnership strategy to increase the airline’s presence in growth markets, further leveraging Singapore as a hub for Qantas customers across Asia. It follows a series of recent new codeshare agreements with WestJet across Canada, to Taiwan with China Airlines and an expanded codeshare with LAN across South America.

SriLankan Airlines’ Head of Commercial Operations, Mohamed Fazeel was confident that this codeshare with Qantas would offer a great travel experience via Singapore for the Airline’s customers.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to boost tourism between Sri Lanka and Australia. Passengers from Australasia will have even greater connectivity to Colombo and South Asia, taking advantage of SriLankan Airlines’ daily frequencies to India, Pakistan and the Maldives” Mr Fazeel said.

“Australia is home to a sizeable Sri Lanka expatriate community and we are pleased that this new codeshare will provide them enhanced connectivity and convenience when they visit their families and friends back home”.

The codeshare with Qantas will be SriLankan Airlines’ fifth codeshare with a oneworld partner, complementing an existing codeshare with Malaysia Airlines over Kuala Lumpur to several major Australian cities, and codeshares with Siberia Airlines (S7), Royal Jordanian and Finnair.

* Subject to regulatory approval.

Qantas Media +61 418 210 005, qantasmedia@qantas.com.au

SriLankan Airlines Corporate Communications +94 19733 1367, media@srilankan.com