India is a massive opportunity for us: SriLankan Airlines CEO

In a chat with The Hindu, SriLankan Airlines’ CEO, Richard Nuttall, whose experience in the airline industry spans three decades and five continents, talks about the airline’s strategy for India, the current challenges it faces and the roadmap ahead. Edited excerpts

SriLankan Airlines has a long history with India, especially with cities in the south. It began services as early as 1979, and has now operated in Chennai for over 44 years. In 2007, it became the first international carrier to operate 100 flights a week to India.

Despite multiple setbacks, especially those faced during the Covid-19 pandemic and the country’s economic crisis, SriLankan Airlines continues to operate in nine Indian cities, and now, has plans to expand. 

This is perhaps in line with the country’s vision: in October, in an effort to boost tourism, the Sri Lankan Cabinet approved the issuing of free tourist visas to tourists from India as part of a pilot project, until March 31, 2024. India is Sri Lanka’s top source market, and Indians constituted 20% of all tourist arrivals to the island nation this year, as of September.

In a chat with The Hindu, SriLankan Airlines’ CEO, Richard Nuttall, whose experience in the airline industry spans three decades and five continents, talks about the airline’s strategy for India, the current challenges it faces and the roadmap ahead. Edited excerpts

India is the real game at the moment. We carry three different groups of passengers: the Sri Lankan traveller, whether that’s the Sri Lankan in Sri Lanka or the diaspora; we have inbound tourism to the country and then we have India, and India is a massive opportunity. 

There’s three parts to the story: first of all, we are the nearest international beach destination to India. India is the biggest source of tourists for Sri Lanka at the moment, but the reality is, the number is peanuts. We get 20% more tourists from India, which has 1.4 billion people and is next door, than we do from the UK that is 11 hours flying time away: we should be getting 10 times that amount.

The second thing about India is that it is the most populous country in the world. The economy is growing fast and in broad number terms, India has half a commercial aircraft per million people. China has three; even in Sri Lanka, we have one, and the U.S. has 30. Now, the fact that we have more in Sri Lanka than India and we have no domestic market – tells you how big the opportunity in India is.