Both airlines will codeshare on each other’s flights between their respective hubs - Qatar Airways’ thrice-daily Airbus A340-600 operations to Colombo and SriLankan Airlines’ daily Airbus A330-300 flight to Doha.
The combination of four daily flights between Doha and Colombo will offer customers “additional convenience and flexibility,” according to a statement.
Passengers travelling to Colombo on Qatar Airways now have additional connectivity to the popular holiday hotspot Male, in the Maldives.
SriLankan Airlines passengers can also now transit through Doha’s Hamad International Airport and travel onwards, subject to government approvals, to 20 leisure and business destinations - Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris, Copenhagen, Moscow, Rome, Frankfurt, Geneva, Manchester, Milan, Oslo, Sofia, Stockholm, Vienna, Zurich, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Bahrain and Cape Town, the statement notes.
Travellers will also benefit from accruing frequent flyer miles, together with other oneworld privileges such as access to spacious lounges, extra baggage allowances, priority check-in and boarding, fast-track security lanes and special fares across both carriers’ networks.
Qatar Airways group chief executive Akbar al-Baker said: “Qatar Airways is pleased to have reached a codesharing agreement with an established oneworld carrier like SriLankan Airlines, which will deepen commercial co-operation and jointly strengthen our competitive offering in the market.
“This new partnership will allow passengers to enjoy the seamless connectivity that Qatar Airways offers via Doha to our wide network across the globe.”
SriLankan Airlines CEO Suren Ratwatte said: “It is our pleasure to seal a codeshare partnership with Qatar Airways to allow our passengers the flexibility and convenience of effective onward connectivity to a number of destinations.”
The daily Doha-Colombo schedule is as follows (Qatar Airways - QR, SriLankan Airlines - UL): QR664 departing Doha at 2.15am and arriving in Colombo at 9.25am, QR665 departing Colombo at 10.50am and arriving in Doha at 1.05pm, QR656 departing Doha at 8.10am and arriving in Colombo at 3.20pm, QR657 departing Colombo at 9.20pm and arriving in Doha at 11.35pm, QR668 departing Doha at 6.50pm and arriving in Colombo at 2am (next day), and QR669 departing Colombo at 3.25am and arriving in Doha at 5.40am; UL218 departing Doha at 10.30pm and arriving in Colombo at 5.55am (next day); and UL217 departing Colombo at 6.45pm and arriving in Doha at 9.15pm.
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