NEW SURVEY RANKS SRILANKAN 8TH IN WORLD'S TOP 10 AIRLINES

SriLankan Airlines has been voted eighth in the Top Major Airline category in the travel awards for 2001 announced by Wanderlust magazine of the UK.

This is a significant award for SriLankan Airlines since the top ten places in these travel awards are usually awarded to the 'big players' in the commercial aviation industry.

Wanderlust is a bi-monthly travel magazine in the UK and announces annual travel awards based on reader surveys. For 2001, 3,570 readers were asked to vote for three airlines from among 189 airlines and score each on their merits. Final positions were based on an average score for the entry (converted to a percentage) so that satisfaction rather than number of votes was what mattered.

SriLankan Airlines with a percentage of 82.5 came eighth after Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Thai Airways, SAS, Air New Zealand, Virgin Atlantic and Cathay Pacific and ahead of LanChile and Swissair.

Says SriLankan's CEO Peter Hill: "It's really encouraging to see SriLankan increasingly appearing in market surveys that are historically dominated by the 'big boys'. The award illustrates very well the point of working hard on consistently getting the basics right and offering value for money together with genuine hospitality and on time performance.

Earlier this year, SKYTRAX Research of the UK voted SriLankan Airline of the Year 2001 - Central Asia from the largest ever global survey of airline passengers (2.7 million votes) over a period of nine months.

SriLankan Airlines is represented in Australia and New Zealand by World Aviation Systems, with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Auckland.