Airports in Sri Lanka

• Colombo ( CMB )
• Batticaloa ( BTC )

Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon, is in Southern Asia. It is an island country in the Indian Ocean, south of India. Sri Lanka has many cities and towns. There are plenty of airlines offering flights to Sri Lanka from major UK airports including London Heathrow, Birmingham, Manchester, Aberdeen, Belfast, Glasgow, Cardiff, New Castle, London Gatwick. Srilankan Airlines is a national flagship carrier operating to and from Colombo-Bandaranayake. Flights are available from origins throughout Europe, Southeast Asia, China, Japan, the Middle East, India, and Pakistan. SL also flies to the nearby resort areas of Goa, India and the Maldives. Sri Lankan also code shares with Emirates Airlines of the United Arab Emirates. This allows for connections from places SL doesn’t fly to itself such as North America. Qatar Airways had become a popular choice from Europe to Sri Lanka by 2008, and the Indian carrier Kingfisher Airlines further improved choice in early 2009 when it opened a Bangalore route to Colombo that enabled easy links to Sri Lanka from the Uk via India.

The majority of Sri Lankans speak Sinhala, with Tamil as the second language. English is commonly used by government and tourism officials. Don’t expect everyone, everywhere to be able to speak it fluently. It’s much more common in the beach and tourist areas. Most people in rural villages cannot speak any English, beyond a few simple words.

• Sinhala Language The greeting in Sinhala is “ayubowan”, pronounced “aybohan” It means “May you live longer”; ‘Thank you’ is “Bohoma istuti, pronounced “bohame stutti” and “how are you” is “kohomada”, pronounced “Ko homede”"
• Tamil Language: The greeting in Tamil is “Vanakkam”; ‘Thank you’ is “Nanri”
• Sri Lankan Muslim: If you meet a Muslim it is polite to say “Assalamu Aliakum” (Arabic); and Thank You “Jazakallahu Khaira 

Sinhala writing is much more curved than Tamil. After a while, you’ll learn how to distinguish between the two.