FitsAir raises frequency on Colombo-Dubai route

Sri Lankan carrier FitsAir has ramped up its services from the capital city of Colombo to Dubai.

Starting March 26, it upgraded its four-times weekly operation to Dubai International (DXB) to a daily service.

The route is operated using an Airbus 320 aircraft, and the frequency increase was announced shortly before the Sinhala and Tamil New Year this month, when traffic is expected to increase between the two destinations.

According to data shared by Dubai Airports, annual traffic between Dubai and the island nation exceeded 900,000 in 2022.

DXB reported passenger numbers of 66 million for the entire year of 2022. Its annual numbers were buoyed by its performance in the last quarter of 2022 which was recorded at 19,729,155 passengers, up 67 per cent compared to the same quarter in 2021.

India was the the top destination country for DXB by passenger volume last year, with a total traffic of 9.8 million passengers, followed by Saudi Arabia with 4.9 million passengers, and the UK at 4.6 million passengers.

Other destination countries of note include Pakistan (3.7 million passengers), the US (3 million), and Russia (1.9 million), which along with Turkiye (1.6 million) has recorded more than 100 per cent recovery in passenger volumes compared to 2019 levels.

Annual flight movements at DXB were recorded at 343,339 for 2022, a 47 per cent year-on-year growth.

DXB’s top destination cities during last year were London with 3 million passengers, Riyadh (2 million), Mumbai (1.9 million), followed by Jeddah and New Delhi which both recorded 1.7 million passengers each.

DXB is connected to 229 destinations across 99 countries through over 88 international carriers. It is forecast to welcome 78 million passengers this year.