SriLankan Airlines was crowned the “World's Leading Airline Operating to the Indian Ocean Region in 2016” at the prestigious 23rd annual World Travel Awards held last week in Maldives.

SriLankan Airlines completed the launch of services to 11 more cities around the Indian Ocean. Just a few weeks ago SriLankan received the title of “Best Full Service Airline in Central and South Asia” for the second consecutive year at the Future Travel Experience Asia Awards 2016 in Singapore.

The World Travel Awards was established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all sectors of the tourism industry. Its winners are recognised as the benchmark to which all others aspire in categories which include airlines, airports, tour operators, airline alliances, hotels and resorts, vehicle rental companies, cruise lines, restaurants, travel apps and websites, all types of service providers, destination cities and even countries.

The awards took into consideration the preferences of more than 1.1 million travelers and persons in the global travel industry who voted online throughout 2016.

SriLankan on 1st December completed the first stage of its new strategy to enhance its focus on the Asia-Middle East region by becoming the first international airline to serve Gan Island in the Maldives. It was its 11th new destination in the past three months, the others being Seychelles, Bahrain, Muscat, Jakarta, Madurai, Kolkata, Lahore, Dhaka, Varanasi and Bodh Gaya. It has also increased services to many other cities in Asia and the Middle East.

It has the largest foreign airline network in India with over 100 flights to 11 cities and is also the largest international airline serving the Maldives, with 25 flights per week.

SriLankan’s global network covers 101 cities in 47 countries. As a member of the oneworld global airline alliance, SriLankan also connects its passengers tooneworld’s worldwide network of more than 1,000 destinations in 160 countries.

The airline has been rapidly modernizing its all-Airbus fleet with the addition of seven brand new wide body A330-300 aircraft in 2016 and is to take delivery of five ultramodern A320neo and A321neo aircraft in 2017. Passengers now enjoy a service with comfortable seats, state of the art entertainment systems, excellent in-flight cuisine, and flight attendants famed for their warmth and caring.