SriLankan Airlines Appoints Dedicated General Sales Agent For Kerala, Opens New Office

SriLankan Airlines is making additional efforts to expand its reach in the Indian State of Kerala. The Lankan Flag Carrier has opened a new office in Thiruvananthapuram. This is a separate office, besides the already established Airport Office. This means that now, SriLankan Airlines has a total of 23 offices in India.

SriLankan Airlines Appoints Sales Agent for Kerala

Casually, airlines appoint a General Sales Agent for a region. You would hear appointments for India, the Indian subcontinent, or the Asia Pacific region. But in an effort to penetrate deeper into the market, SriLankan Airlines appoints regional GSAs in India. It has appointed a dedicated General Sales Agent for Southern Kerala. Translanka Air Travels Pvt. Ltd. has been selected as its GSA for Southern Kerala. The new office will also be managed by this company.

This region is a huge marketplace for the airline. With the help of its new partner, the airline is looking to improve its services in areas including Pathanamthitta, Kollam, Varkala, Kovalam, Marthandam, Nagercoil, and Tirunelveli. Sri Lanka is like just another state for this region because of its close location. Many Keralites often visit Sri Lanka to spend their vacation. The number of Indian tourists to Sri Lanka has grown rapidly.

SriLankan Airlines currently operates in two cities in Kerala: Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. Both cities are served with 8 and 4 weekly flights respectively. Specifically, the Trivandrum route of this airline is very old. It has completed 44 years of operations in the city of Trivandrum. The initiation of these services traces back to 1980. Not just P2P, the airline also caters to connecting traffic from these cities. Given its location, it is one of the most preferred airlines to connect to Southeast Asia and the Trans-Tasman region.

SriLankan Airlines Opens New Office in Kerala

In a bid to expand operations to Southern Kerala, the airline has opened one more office in Trivandrum city, taking the total number of offices in India to 23. With this, the airline has two offices in Trivandrum city itself. The old office was located at the airport premises. Now, the airline has inaugurated a new office.

This new office is located at 1st Floor, CB Square, Ambujavilasam Road, Statue, Trivandrum. The Pincode for this location is 695001. Translanka Air Travels Private Ltd. will be responsible for managing this office space. This is the same company chosen as the airline’s GSA. This office will remain open from Monday to Saturday, with different times on Saturdays. On weekends, it will be open from 09:00 to 13:30, while on the remaining days, the opening time will be from 09:00 AM to 05:30 PM. On its website, the airline has shared the communication details for the new office.

Telephone: +91 471 4618886 +91 471 2570025 / 35
Email : trvres@srilankan.com / trvsales@srilankan.com

The opening event was attended by key management personnel from SriLankan Airlines and Translanka Air Travels. Key dignitaries included:

• Head of Worldwide Sales and Distribution: Dimuthu Tennakoon,

• Regional Manager for India, Bangladesh, and Nepal: Fawzan Fareid
• Area Manager for Trivandrum: Sandun Jayasinghe
• Managing Director of TransLanka Air Travels: B. Ramesh Kumar

Mr Dimuthi, Head of Worldwide Sales & Distribution for SriLankan Airlines emphasized the importance of Trivandrum. He said that it was one of the first international destinations for SriLankan Airlines in 1980. Showing his confidence in the partnership, he ensured that the airline is committed to serving the Southern Kerala region and taking its service to new heights.

Regional GSAs: Different Strategy

India has been a huge market for SriLankan Airlines. The airline now connects Colombo Bandaranaike International Airport to 10 Indian cities. To enhance services in specific markets, the airline has selected different Sales Agents for different regions. Different strategy but anything which works in this world is fine.

Offices in different cities are managed by its GSA partners. Some examples are stated below:

• Visakhapatnam & Hyderabad: Nagarjuna Travels Private Limited
• Varanasi, Delhi, Bodhgaya & Ahmedabad: STIC Travels Pvt Ltd.
• Trivandrum, Calicut, Bengaluru, Kochi & Trichy: Translanka Air Travels Pvt Ltd
• Mumbai, Kolkata, Goa & Jalandhar: Stic GSA Services Pvt LTD

In every city, these GSAs have different offices, where they manage the airline’s operations in that particular region. This also suggests that the partnership with TransLanka is not new. Both parties have been in collaboration for a long time. The partnership has been enhanced to include Trivandrum.

Conclusion: SriLankan Airlines Kerala Expansion

SriLankan Airlines is looking to foray into the Southern Kerala region. For this, the airline has opened a dedicated office in the city of Trivandrum. Furthermore, it has expanded the agreement with Translanka Air Travels Private Limited to include Trivandrum under the General Sales Agency Agreement. Currently, Calicut, Bengaluru, Kochi & Trichy are covered in this. Now, Trivandrum is the newest addition.

What do you think about this South Indian expansion from SriLankan Airlines? Discuss in the comment section.