Sri Lanka, Oct. 26 -- Jetstar has captured nearly a fifth of Australia's tourist traffic to Sri Lanka in its first full month on the Melbourne-Colombo route, absorbing the bulk of the market's growth while SriLankan Airlines, despite adding flights, carried roughly the same number of Australian tourists, as per SLTDA data.

Airlines outside SLTDA's list of named carriers accounted for 18.78 percent of the 10,951 Australian tourists who arrived in September, up from just 0.92 percent in July. While SLTDA does not list the Qantas Group's low-cost arm separately, the jump coincides with Australian arrivals departing from Melbourne more than doubling to 4,256 from 2,111, and those routed through Singapore and Kuala Lumpur falling 19.6 percen...