Jetstar has captured nearly a fifth of Australia’s tourist traffic to Sri Lanka in its first full month on the Melbourne-Colombo route, absorbing the bulk of the market’s growth while SriLankan Airlines, despite adding flights, carried roughly the same number of Australian tourists, as per SLTDA data.
Airlines outside SLTDA’s list of named carriers accounted for 18.78 percent of the 10,951 Australian tourists who arrived in September, up from just 0.92 percent in July. While SLTDA does not list the Qantas Group’s low-cost arm separately, the jump coincides with Australian arrivals departing from Melbourne more than doubling to 4,256 from 2,111, and those routed through Singapore and Kuala Lumpur falling 19.6 percent and 32.1 percent respectively.
The passengers Jetstar has won appear to have come largely from Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines, whose combined share of the market fell from 40 percent in July to 28.5 percent in September, equivalent to roughly 760 fewer passengers, based on Mirror Business calculations.
However, SriLankan flew an estimated 4,720 Australian tourists in September, only marginally above 4,610 in July, despite raising its Colombo-Melbourne service from seven to 10 weekly flights from 2 August.
Its share of Australian arrivals consequently slipped from 47.55 percent to 43.11 percent, well below the 55.83 percent it held in September last year, when it carried around 5,080 Australians.
Australians visiting for pleasure rose by about 1,210 between July and September, accounting for nearly all of the 1,250 increase in arrivals, while those visiting friends and relatives held steady at around 3,300, based on SLTDA data.
Although SLTDA does not break this down by airline, the pattern suggests Jetstar is bringing in leisure travellers, whereas SriLankan’s Australian traffic appears anchored in diaspora visits, which made up over a third of the market before Jetstar’s launch. SriLankan itself has cited Melbourne’s large Sri Lankan community among the reasons for its success on the route.
Australian arrivals rose 20.3 percent in September when compared to the same month last year, accelerating from 6.4 percent growth in July and lifting Australia above the United Kingdom to become the island’s third-largest source market for the month. As reported earlier by Mirror Business, Jetstar Executive Manager Commercial Scott Zeglin noted that the thrice-weekly flights were running over 90 percent full in each direction, though he remained cautious on adding peak-season frequencies.
Jetstar’s gains come as the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) runs a Rs.1.5 billion interim digital and public relations campaign through April, with Australia leading a six-month push on Meta, TikTok and YouTube, backed by a trade roadshow across Australia and New Zealand that concluded in Perth. However, according to industry sources, SriLankan has offered very little collaboration in supporting the country’s tourism promotion.
Meanwhile, SriLankan Airlines Chief Executive Officer Vipul Misra told the media last week that the national carrier is studying a direct route to Perth, citing demand identified during a recent roadshow held jointly with the Tourism Ministry. “We see there is a strong demand in Perth,” he noted, adding that aircraft would have to be sourced from outside to deploy the capacity.
Misra argued that the national carrier must take on routes that private airlines would deem commercially unattractive at the outset. “Nobody would bleed their money to open that route,” he observed. A Perth service would add a third Australian gateway alongside Melbourne and Sydney, tapping travellers who currently connect via Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or the Gulf.
