Air Seychelles will offer twice weekly flights to Colombo, Sri Lanka, commencing in June, the airline said on Tuesday.

The inaugural flight will depart the main island of Mahe on June 20 at 10.05 p.m. and expect to arrive in Colombo four hours later. The flights will be served by Air Seychelles' Airbus A320neo aircraft.

The airline's chief commercial officer, Charles Johnson, said: "We're very excited about this opportunity to link Seychelles with Sri Lanka. A destination in its own right with excellent tourist, medical and trading opportunities which all Seychellois will benefit from."

He added that Air Seychelles' "upcoming partnership with Sri Lankan Airlines will allow travellers to purchase a single ticket for travel beyond Colombo to other destinations in Asia. This service will drastically reduce current travel times and at prices much lower than currently seen in the market."

The Colombo service will also offer over 20 connections through a future partnership with Sri Lankan Airlines. This will allow for a one stop connection to numerous destinations. These will include India, Bangladesh, Bangkok in Thailand, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Singapore, and Tokyo in Japan, as well as the highly requested Australian cities of Melbourne and Sydney.

Sandy Benoiton, the airline's acting chief executive, said that "This new destination will reinforce our regional service and provide enhanced connectivity to the south-east Asia region and beyond. This is a high potential market and we look forward to seeing what lies ahead."

Air Seychelles currently operates flights to Tel Aviv, Johannesburg, Mumbai, and Mauritius with state-of-the-art Airbus A320neos.