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Friday, 8 October 2021 00:22 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
From left to: Air France Products and Marketing Manager (Asia Regional) Beuno Megret, Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga, Air France Director General Zoran Jelkic, Tourism Ministry Secretary S. Hettiarachchi, Air France Business Development Director Francois Giudicelli
Air France has agreed to launch Colombo flights thrice a week starting 5 November, in a move reflecting growing confidence international airlines have in Sri Lanka, said Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga.
In Paris this week to attend the leading tourism fair IFTM Top Resa, the Minister met Air France Directeur Général Long Courrier Zoran Jelkic, Asia Pacific Business Development Director Francois Giudicelli along with Tourism Ministry Secretary S. Hettiarachchi.
France is the fifth biggest tourism source market for Sri Lanka and resumption of flights, for the first time since the 1980s, confirms the French National Carrier’s attraction to and confidence in Sri Lanka.
The Minister said he hoped to initiate a special promotional package for passengers coming via Air France and it was also discussed during the meeting with Air France officials.
“The proposed special promotional package is expected to be implemented in consultation with hotel owners in Sri Lanka,” he added.
The Tourism Minister-led top-level delegation is in France to participate at the four-day International French Travel Mart (IFTM) Top Resa, after a one-year break from physical engagement at global trade fairs.
During 2018/19 Sri Lanka received over 100,000 tourists from France, all having minimum stays of eight nights earning considerable foreign exchange for the country.
In the first eight months of 2021, a total of 1,175 French tourists visited Sri Lanka, accounting for 5% of the tourist traffic to the country, but down 95% from the same period a year earlier.
The Minister also said that Air France had also agreed to consider an increase of frequencies to Colombo in the future in tandem with demand.
France was one of the first countries to permit travel to Sri Lanka, in early August. Sri Lanka’s classification changed from Red to Orange in France last month. The move allows fully vaccinated French travellers to visit Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans to visit France with a European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved vaccination, which includes Pfizer and Covishield.
Air France was named Best Airline in Europe at the Skytrax World Airline Awards 2021. It was ranked the 10th best airlines in the world and is the only European airline in the Top 10, which includes more than 350 airlines and is based on the surveys of more than 13 million passengers of over 100 nationalities.
Air France also won the COVID Airline Excellence Award at the Skytrax World Airline Awards 2021 for its commitment to health security. This is the third time that Air France has received a distinction from Skytrax for all the measures implemented since the outbreak of COVID pandemic.
