Surge in flights, passengers expected ahead of peak season

Friday, 24 October 2025 00:20 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Ltd. (AASL) said that passenger volumes and flight operations are expected to increase significantly during the upcoming tourism season, supported by new airline schedules and expanded routes.

Sri Lanka’s peak travel period begins in November and continues through February. The AASL said both the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in Katunayake and the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) in Hambantota will handle new flight operations during this period.

Kuwait Airways will resume services to BIA on 27 October, operating four flights a week, while Belarus’s national carrier Belavia Airlines will begin scheduled charter operations to MRIA on 28 October.

On the same day, Russia’s Red Wings Airlines will launch five weekly flights to Hambantota, and Edelweiss, a subsidiary of SWISS International Air Lines, will commence its winter operations to BIA.

Additionally, Enter Air of Poland is set to operate regular charter flights between Warsaw and Colombo from 30 October 2025, with services every 10 days on Thursdays and Sundays until mid-April 2026.

To accommodate the rise in passenger traffic, AASL said 12 new check-in counters will be opened at BIA from 1 November 2025 as a short-term measure for the winter season, following requests from international carriers to add more flights and deploy wide-body aircraft.

Beijing Capital Airlines is also scheduled to launch flights from Beijing Daxing International Airport to Colombo in January 2026, operating twice weekly. Meanwhile, Jetstar, part of Australia’s Qantas Group, is exploring the possibility of starting scheduled services to Colombo next year.

The tourism industry reached a key milestone surpassing 1.8 million tourist arrivals for the year as of mid-October 2025, signalling continued recovery and growing global confidence in the destination.

The Government’s revised 2025 target of 2.6 million arrivals still requires attracting over 800,000 visitors in the last quarter, a task that industry experts describe as “ambitious but attainable”, depending on winter season performance and global travel conditions.