Written by Nishant Bal

Sri Lankan carrier FitsAir will operate direct flights from Ahmedabad to Colombo three times a week, from May 15, cutting travel time from 8–12 hours to around three hours. The announcement was made in Ahmedabad by Nayana Mawilmada from John Keells Holdings, which is launching the flight in partnership with FitsAir, on Thursday.

Currently, all the flights from Ahmedabad to Colombo have a stopover in between.

The new service will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Flights from Ahmedabad are scheduled to depart at 3.40 am and arrive in Colombo at 6.50 am, while return services will leave Colombo at 11.25 pm and land in Ahmedabad at 2.35 am.

The route has been introduced through a partnership between FitsAir and Sri Lanka’s John Keells Holdings, along with its hospitality and travel arms Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts and Walkers Tours.

Representatives of the companies described the initiative as “a private sector-led effort to establish direct connectivity between Gujarat and Sri Lanka”.

Explaining the rationale, Mawilmada, president – Leisure and Property, John Keells Holdings, said, “We came to Ahmedabad about six months ago and saw so much interest in the market for Sri Lanka, but Sri Lanka was eight to twelve hours away for anybody from Gujarat. We made a commitment saying we are going to come and bring direct connectivity between Gujarat and Colombo.”

To cater to Indian travellers, particularly from Gujarat, the hospitality group is also adapting its offerings. “We’re hiring Gujarati chefs… we’ll have Gujarati food readily available from the 15th,” Mawilmada said, adding that vegetarian and Jain options will be available across hotels.

He added that the service will initially operate three times a week. “We have a partnership where we will run three times a week. Ahmedabad is going to be, in the very near future, about three hours from Colombo,” Mawilmada said.

The announcement has been timed to coincide with Hanuman Jayanti, which is Thursday (April 2), which Mawilmada described as “a very auspicious beginning” for building travel links between Gujarat and Sri Lanka.

The launch has been timed to coincide with Hanuman Jayanti, which Mawilmada described as “a very auspicious beginning” for building travel links between Gujarat and Sri Lanka.

Annual footfall of 25,000 travellers from Gujarat

According to company estimates, around 20,000–25,000 travellers from Gujarat visit Sri Lanka annually. “We believe it will grow easily three, four, five-fold in the next couple of years,” Mawilmada said.

Officials also pointed to changing outbound travel patterns.

Mawilmada said that around nine million Indian passengers go to West Asia every year, and the market there seems to be slowing down. “Sri Lanka can present itself as a very, very attractive alternative destination,” he said, adding that “even if we get 5% to 10%… Sri Lanka will be full.”

Kamal Munasinghe, Senior Vice President, Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts, said Sri Lanka is being positioned as a compact, diverse destination. “Within two to three hours by car… you can experience very different parts of the country. It’s that diversity of offering in a very small geographical distance which we feel is really unparalleled,” he said.

He added that Colombo has undergone significant changes in recent years. “The skyline has changed… the cultural and culinary offerings have evolved over the last few years to cater to the global traveller,” Munasinghe said.

(Nishant Bal is an intern with The Indian Express)