Panaji, Mar 15 (UNI) SriLankan Airlines, since commencement of its operations to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia this year, has increased its service to 51 international destinations in 28 countries.

The airlines had also decided to introduce the third weekly flight to Goa from March 30 this year and back with passenger occupancy almost doubled since it introduced bi-weekly flights to this international tourist destination from Colombo a few months ago.

Disclosing this to reporters here today, SriLankan Airlines Western India Manager Mr Diomuthu Tennakoon and Goa Sales Manager Ms Manimegalai said the airlines had now been operating 19 frequencies to Europe, 41 to the Far East, 39 to the West Asia, two to Jeddah and 112 to India.

India, they said, continued to be the second most favoured tourist destination to the people of SriLanka. At the sametime, the number of Indians visiting the island nation had been rising year after year.

As many as 1,10,000 passengers visited SriLanka last year and the number was expected to touch 1,50,000 this year with the airlines offering attractive packages.

Recently, the SriLankan Airlines following had increased its frequency to Mumbai from Colombo to seven services rise in demand.

Its domestic air taxi service was also made available to 14 destinations to facilitate the tourists, they added.

UNI