Maiden Brussels-Colombo direct charter takes off

Monday, 1 November 2010 00:40 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Brussels-Colombo direct charter flight operated by Jetairairfly and Thomas Cook began during the weekend providing a fresh boost to post-war tourism. The charter will operate until April next year.

“Sri Lanka is today one of the safest destinations in the world a tourist can expect to fly to” Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the EU Ravinatha Aryasinha said at a departure ceremony for the inaugural flight held on Saturday at the Brussels International Airport.

The Ambassador who noted that “tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka from Belgium had increased by 82.8% up to September this year, said this compared well with the 50% increase recorded from Europe, and the 44% recorded from around the world, in the same period.”

Commending Jetairairfly and Thomas Cook for being one of the first European collaborations to

re-commence direct flights to Sri Lanka, he said it will be a huge boost to the marketing of the destination not only in Belgium, but also in the entire BENELUX region (Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg) and would result in an exponential growth in tourists to Sri Lanka from these countries. He urged the visitors to Sri Lanka, to on their return, share their experience with others, so that more will be encouraged to make the journey, which will strengthen the people-to-people bonds between Europe and Sri Lanka.