SriLankan Airlines temporarily suspends flights to China

March, 8, 2020

SriLankan Airlines is temporarily suspending its services between Sri Lanka and China from 10th March to 30th April 2020 due to current market conditions driven by significant reduction in worldwide travel to and from China.

SriLankan Airlines continued to fly to China after many airlines suspended services or reduced frequencies, including four Chinese airlines that operate between Colombo and China. The Government of China has also imposed restrictions on overseas travel of its own citizens.

The situation is being continuously evaluated on an ongoing basis and SriLankan intends to recommence services as soon as the situation becomes commercially viable.

Accordingly, SriLankan stands ready to re-commence operations even prior to 30th April if the current market conditions are to normalize.

The airline has been operating services to three cities in China, namely Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. It earlier reduced its frequencies to these cities with effect from 6th February 2020.

These decisions, which are on a temporary basis, have been taken as per SriLankan’s long-held commercial policies, as the current seat factors (passengers per flight) to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou are not sufficient to cover the cost of these operations.