Trinco takes off, more destinations for Air Taxi in 2012

Trincomalee, Sri Lanka’s favourite tourist destination in the east coast of the country, can now be reached in just an hour from Colombo, with SriLankan Airline’s, Air Taxi service.

Trincomalee, in the North East coast of the country, is SriLankan Air Taxi’s 14th destination and the airline plans to add more destinations like Batticaloa, Anuradhapura, Passikudah, Jaffna and Kalpitiya,  to its route network next year, opening up the entire North and East coast of the country, for quick transfers to tourists.  

SriLankan Air Taxi, currently operates to popular tourist destinations,  Bentota, Koggala, Dikwella, Dambulla, Kandy,(Polgolla and Victoria) Nuwara Eliya, Hambantota, Tissamaharama, Castlereagh, Arugam Bay, Ampara and Iranamadu either on scheduled flights or charters.  

With its natural,  deep water harbour,  rated as one of the finest of its kind in the world, its turquoise ocean and pristine beaches, Trincomalee is also a popular whale watching and fishing zone and is a popular, attractive destination for both foreign visitors to the country and  domestic tourists.  

The biggest drawback to Trincoimalee’s growing popularity as a key tourist destination, was its distance from Colombo. Travel from the capital Colombo by road to the east coast destination is about eight hours,  but now the Air Taxi’s scheduled flights have cut down travel time to just one hour.  

Chief Marketing Officer for SriLankan Airlines, Mr. G.T. Jeyaseelan said, “The entire coastal area of  the Eastern province is a fast growing tourist destination with bustling tourism in major East coast towns,  like Trincomalee, Batticoloa and the newly opened up Passikudah, down to Arugam Bay in the south East , better known as A bay,  to international surfers. We are definitely looking at strengthening our air taxi operations to these East coast destinations during the course of next year.”  

“As the national carrier, SriLankan Airlines is committed to promoting tourism into the country and we look at every opportunity to facilitate comfortable and quick transfers from Colombo to all tourist attractions, as part of our commitment to improve domestic travel,” he added.

Two 15 seater twin otter aircraft are used for this domestic air service which only takes off and lands on water, and uses Kelani River at  Peliyagoda as its Colombo base.  

Air Taxi transfers passengers from Colombo to any point in its route network within half an hour to one hour, and is now one of the quickest methods of travel from Colombo to any part of the country. Charter flights are also offered to all the Air Taxi destinations.  

SriLankan Air Taxi is the most convenient option for international passengers to transfer to their final destination in the country, in the shortest possible time. Passengers who fly over 10 hours to reach Colombo, have to travel a further minimum of three hours by road, to reach destinations like Kandy or Galle.  

The Twin Otter aircraft takes you approximately 3000 to 10000 feet in the sky to give you that aviation adventure of soaring over Sri Lanka’s fascinating landscape of lagoons, lakes, beaches, mountains, forests, valleys and paddy fields.