SriLankan Airlines, the newest member of oneworld alliance, is set to begin offering new codeshares with fellow oneworld member Finnair, a reciprocal arrangement that deepens both airlines’ networks and helps boost travel and tourism between the Nordic countries and Sri Lanka.

As part of the agreement between the two airlines, from  June 2, 2014 Finnair’s AY* code will be added to select SriLankan Airlines services between the Sri Lankan capital Colombo and Frankfurt, Paris, Rome, London, Bangkok and Hong Kong. SriLankan Airlines’ UL* code will accordingly be added to select Finnair services between Helsinki and Frankfurt, Paris, Rome, London, Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen.

SriLankan Airlines, Head of Commercial Operations Mr. Mohamed Fazeel said, “SriLankan Airlines is very pleased to be partnering Finnair which is one of the world’s leading airlines. We are confident that this partnership with Finnair will expand SriLankan’s reach to the Scandinavian region; thereby increasing Scandinavian tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka and facilitate more visitors to the Scandinavian region from Sri Lanka and South Asia. SriLankan Airlines will continue to partner many other oneworld member airlines in order to provide more direct connections to Colombo.”

“Ever since SriLankan Airlines began preparations to join oneworld, Finnair has looked forward to working with its new alliance partner and establishing a codeshare agreement that would expand our network and benefit both airlines’ customers,” says Pekka Vauramo, Finnair’s VP Commercial Partnerships. “Finnair customers can now take advantage of better opportunities to visit and discover the island nation of Sri Lanka.”

The codeshare arrangements are subject to relevant regulatory approvals from the territories concerned.

SriLankan Airlines already codeshares with oneworld members Malaysia Airlines and Royal Jordanian, and is also launching new codeshares with S7 Airlines. Discussions on further codeshare arrangements with more oneworld members are at advanced stage.