Australian low-cost carrier Jetstar began flying between Melbourne and Colombo on Tuesday, its inaugural service landing at Bandaranaike International Airport in the evening.
Flight JQ005 touched down at Katunayake at 6.24 p.m. carrying 271 passengers and 13 crew, Ada Derana reported. The aircraft, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, was met with a traditional water salute on arrival, and a ceremony was held at the airport’s Silk Route passenger terminal to mark the launch.
Three flights a week
The service will run three times weekly — Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays — between Melbourne and Katunayake, with a flying time of roughly 10 hours.
Those are the operating details that were missing when the route was first announced. Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath said in June that Jetstar had agreed to launch direct services to Colombo following his official visit to Australia, but did not disclose which Australian city would be paired with Colombo, how often the service would operate, or what it would cost. Tuesday’s arrival settles all three.
A second new long-haul route in a week
The Jetstar launch follows Vietjet’s inaugural Colombo–Ho Chi Minh City service on August 19, giving Sri Lanka two new international connections inside a week.
Australia is a significant market for Sri Lankan aviation. The Australian–Sri Lankan community is one of the larger diaspora populations, and the tourism authority has been working to widen the country’s visitor base beyond its traditional reliance on Indian and European arrivals.
Ada Derana did not report the fare structure, the airline’s projected seat capacity on the route, or whether Jetstar plans to add further Australian cities. As of Tuesday night, no other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had published its own report of the inaugural arrival — though the Daily Mirror filed on Vietjet’s first Colombo landing the week before, so a second account of this one is likely.
