Srilankan Airlines which is the largest and flag carrier of Sri Lanka has announced that they will operate services from Srilanka to Melbourne starting in October. The flight will leave from their hub Colombo and will use their A330-200 aircraft.

This isn’t the first time the carrier has touched down in Australia, according to Airlineroute Srilankan actually used to fly to the Victorian capital from 1990 until they ceased the service in 1993 probably due to poor performance on the route. The carrier has said to have wanted to bring back the route a few years ago and now they have.

If only they would use their A330-300 which features a much better onboard product!

Here is the schedule for the new services from October 29th:

The flight departing from Colombo will depart at 11:50 pm and will arrive into Melbourne at 3:25 pm daily.

The flight departing from Melbourne will depart at 4:55 pm and will arrive into Colombo at 10:15 pm daily.

As I mentioned earlier, the airline will be utilising their A330-200 aircraft. The aircraft is in a 2 class configuration which is fitted with 18 Business Class seats in a 2-2-2 configuration and Economy seats that are in a 2-4-2 configuration. The Business seats have a pitch of 79” and a width of 21”. There are multiple types of variants the airline uses for the Y cabin so the pitch, width and amount of Economy seats may vary. The airline hasn’t stated exactly how many Economy seats will be used on the service.

Srilankan Airlines A330-200 Business Class (Image – Srilankan Airlines)

As the airline is part of Oneworld, passengers in Business and eligible Elite members will have access to either the Qantas Business or First Class lounge in Melbourne with one guest, and In Colombo, Oneworld Emerald guests can use the ‘Serendib lounge’ (review from One Mile At a Time) while Business Class guests and Oneworld Sapphire members can use the ‘Serenediva Lounge.’

The new route is a fantastic Oneworld addition to Australia, and if you like cheap fares, this is also another amazing opportunity. It’s quite a well-known fact that fares departing Colombo in premium cabins can be extremely cheap. By flying directly to Colombo this makes getting those cheap premium fares easier and more worthwhile for Australians.