SriLankan Airlines to fly to Visakhapatnam from 8 July

SriLankan Airlines will operate four weekly direct flights from Visakhapatnam to Colombo from 8 July.

Four weekly flights would operate on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, according to the Tours and Travels Association of Andhra Pradesh.

The flight will leave Colombo at 7:10 a.m. and arrive at Visakhapatnam at 9:10 a.m. Again it will start from Vizag at 10:10 a.m. to reach Colombo at 12:15 p.m.

The flight will leave Colombo at 7.10 am and in the port city of Andhra Pradesh at 9.10 am. From here, the flight will departure at 10.10 am and arrive in the Sri Lankan capital at 12.15 pm, he said.

Association Chairman O. Naresh Kumar said the airline has launched special economy fares for ticketing before 17 May and travel till 30 November.

PM Modi announces direct flight from Varanasi to Colombo 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday announced the launch of direct flights between Colombo and Varanasi by Air India from August this year. 

PM Modi added that the flight will ease “travel to the land of Buddha”.

“My Tamil brothers and sisters will also be able to visit Varanasi, the land of Kashi Viswanath,” Modi said during his speech at the opening of United Nations International Vesak Day celebrations at the BMICH in Colombo yesterday as the Chief Guest.

At a distance of 10 kilometres from Varanasi, lies Sarnath, one of the most revered Buddhist pilgrimage centres.

It is believed that after attaining the enlightenment at Bodh Gaya in Bihar, it was in Sarnath that Lord Buddha preached his first sermon, sanctified as Maha Dharm Chakra Parivartan.

The direct flights will aid pilgrims from Sri Lanka, a Buddhist-majority country, to visit Sarnath.Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh is the parliamentary constituency of the prime minister, from where he contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election.