SriLankan deriving benefits from handling own ground operations in India

SriLankan Airlines, the first foreign airline to operate 100 flights per week to India, says it is deriving significant benefits from handling its own ground operations at four major Indian airports. According to airline officials, self-handling of ground operations at these airports has also helped in significantly increasing the visibility of the airline's branding in the country.

The four airports are Chennai, Trichy, Coimbatore, and Goa.

According to SriLankan Airlines' chief executive officer, Manoj Gunawardena: ''Benefits from this initiative are two fold, it increases our level of customer service and it also brings in significant cost savings to the operation. It is an excellent example of how significant quality and cost benefits can be achieved by challenging the established practices.''
SriLankan became the first foreign carrier to operate 100 flights per week to India last November. Of these, it operates 33 flights to the four destinations where it is now handling its own ground operations. It operates 15 flights to Chennai, 11 to Trichy, four to Coimbatore, and three to Goa.

According to Nalini Fernando, regional airport service manager, India, ''Our decision to self-handle at selected Indian airports was undertaken towards reducing heavy operational costs and branding of SriLankan at Indian airports in a highly competitive market. Airport service staff in SriLankan uniforms attend to every aspect of airport service duties, offering personalised service to our customers, unlike in a handling agent environment.