Sri Lanka, Aug. 23 -- Jetstar will begin three weekly Melbourne to Colombo flights from August 25 (Tuesday), creating Australia's only low-cost nonstop service on the route. The move will inject more than 100,000 seats a year into a market long shaped by premium pricing and one-stop itineraries, with immediate consequences for leisure, Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) demand and competitive fare structures across South Asia out of Australia.

The route will operate every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday all year round, will link Colombo's Bandaranaike International Airport (IATA Code CMB) with Melbourne's Tullamarine International Airport (IATA Code MEL), moving into a corridor that has remained conspicuously absent of low-cost direct ...