KLM announces Colombo and Miami

KLM has officially announced major expansion of its long haul route network from the on set of the IATA W16 season of which the main highlights are as follows:

CMB - new twice weekly nonstop flights to be launched using a B789 effective 31OCT 

MIA - new 3 weekly nonstop flights to be launched using an A332 effective 30OCT

HAV - frequencies increased to daily nonstop service using an A332

KUL - frequencies increased from daily to 10 weekly using a B772ER daily + 3 weekly B789

YVR - frequencies reduced from 5 to 4 weekly nonstop using an A332

Comments:

Colombo relaunch has caught everyone by surprise but its 2 weekly frequency means that it is primarily catering to tour operators who have witnessed a huge boom of outbound EU tourism into Sri Lanka since the end of the civil war in 2010.

The P2P demand between Scandinavia region to CMB-Colombo (round trip) in 2015 was as follows:

AMS - 26,000
ARN - 20,000
OSL - 19,000
CPH - 23,000

In addition, KLM will also get a lot of transfer traffic bound to UK, CDG, BRU, DUB, North America and Germany via AMS as the schedule is ideal for 2 way connections as seen below:

Days - MON/FRI
 
KL 873 Dep AMS 1330 Arr CMB 0350+1
KL 874 Dep CMB 0550 Arr AMS 1220