SriLankan Airlines has inked a codeshare partnership with Qantas over flights between the Colombo and Australia, its fifth codeshare deal with a oneworld carrier, having joined the global alliance in April 2014.
Under the partnership, Qantas will add its QF airline code on SriLankan’s daily service between Colombo and Singapore. The Flying Kangaroo already codeshares on its global alliance partner Emirates’ flight on the route.
At the same time, SriLankan will place its UL airline code on Qantas-operated services from Singapore to Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, complementing an existing codeshare on Malaysia Airlines between Kuala Lumpur and Australia.
Qantas said on Wednesday passengers on its international flights to Singapore would be able to connect onto SriLankan’s service from the city-state within two to three hours.
SriLankan head of commercial operations Mohamed Fazeel said the codeshares would help boost tourism between Australia and Sri Lanka.
“Passengers from Australasia will have even greater connectivity to Colombo and South Asia, taking advantage of SriLankan Airlines’ daily frequencies to India, Pakistan and the Maldives,” Fazeel said in a statement.
“Australia is home to a sizeable Sri Lanka expatriate community and we are pleased that this new codeshare will provide them enhanced connectivity and convenience when they visit their families and friends back home”.
SriLankan’s other oneworld codeshare airlines, apart from Qantas and Malaysian, were Finnair, Royal Jordanian and Siberia Airlines.
Qantas executive manager of international sales Stephen Thompson said the codeshares would give the airline’s customers more options for travel to Sri Lanka and beyond to the Maldives.
The new codeshares begin on October 26.
