SriLankan Airlines to commence flights to Calicut, India

SriLankan Airlines is to commence flights to Calicut, the fabled city in southwestern India, from 1 July 2004, becoming the first non-Indian airline to operate regular services to Calicut's International Airport.

Calicut is SriLankan's 10th destination in India and will be serviced by four flights per week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. The 90-minute flight to Calicut, Flight UL169, leaves Colombo at 9:00 a.m. and arrives in Calicut at 9:50 a.m. It begins the return journey as Flight UL170 at 10:50 a.m. and arrives in Colombo at 12:40 (all times stated are local, with an half-hour difference between the two countries).

"We intend to increase the number of flights to Calicut in the near future, up to a daily frequency. This is in keeping with SriLankan Airlines' policy of having daily flights to as many of its destinations as possible," said Mr. G. T. Jeyaseelan, Head of Commercial, SriLankan Airlines.

With the launch of flights to Calicut, SriLankan Airlines will have 66 flights to 10 cities in India, the others being New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Trichy, Trivandrum, Bodh Gaya, Kochi and Hyderabad. SriLankan said it intends to launch flights to several more destinations in India in the near future.

Calicut, also known as Kozhikode, is SriLankan's third destination in the state of Kerala, after Trivandrum and Kochi. The Calicut flights will begin on 1 July 2004 and will be serviced by one of SriLankan's four Airbus A320 aircraft.

The Calicut connection follows the recent agreement between India and Sri Lanka to open up skies to both Indian and Sri Lankan Airlines.

"SriLankan Airlines has identified India as a fast growing market with enormous potential. It is our strategy to provide services to many more destinations throughout India," said Mohamed Fazeel, Regional Manager (Asia Pacific), SriLankan Airlines.

SriLankan Airlines will be represented in Calicut by its General Sales Agent - Trans Lanka Travels.

A bustling city with a population of 800,000 in its metropolitan area, Calicut is the commercial capital of Malabar. It has a University, Medical College, the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, and the National Institute of Technology. Arab traders settled in Calicut in the 7th century. Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese discoverer of the sea route to India, landed there in 1498. The Portuguese built a fortified trading post there in 1511, but it was abandoned in 1525. An English expedition visited the area in 1615, and in 1664 the British East India Company established a trading post there. The French followed in 1698 and the Danes in 1752. Hyder Ali, the 18th-century Indian ruler and military commander of Mysore, captured the town in 1765 and destroyed it. In 1790 the British returned to Calicut, and the inhabitants returned and rebuilt the city.