SriLankan Airlines is increasing flights from Dubai to Colombo, bringing the weekly total to 28 services a week including codeshare operations with Emirates.

This forms part of a three-phase development plan to boost traffic to and through Sri Lanka in the wake of the tsunami.

From March 27, SriLankan will inaugurate the first direct service between Colombo and New York, operated as a codeshare flight on a daily basis with partner Emirates via Dubai, and in the summer, Beijing will join the carrier’s network with the launch of three weekly flights via Bangkok.

Elsewhere, SriLankan will again team up with Emirates to offer 33 weekly flights to Frankfurt, Munich and Dusseldorf, as well as 12 services a week to Paris and daily operations to Zurich, while the flagship route from Colombo to London will gain three additional frequencies bringing the total to 12, with a plan to up this to double daily in the near future.

In the Middle East and Indian sub-continent region, SriLankan will introduce daily flights from Colombo to Abu Dhabi this summer, using wide-bodied A330 aircraft, with four of the services continuing to Doha and three to Bahrain.

In addition, the airline is adding services to Kuwait and Dammam, with nine weekly flights to the former and three to the eastern province of Saudi Arabia.