SriLankan Airlines is pushing to expand its portfolio through fifth freedom rights to Nepal and Bangladesh, while keeping a close tab on rising jet fuel prices, which may put a drag on its balance sheet this year.rnrn
Fifth freedom or lquote beyond rights, refers to the right of an airline from one country to land in a second country, pick up passengers and fly on to a third country where they deplane. rn
rnWith India liberalising its air service, Sri Lanka got fifth freedom rights for designated airlines to carry passengers from India to any SAARC country.rn
rnldblquote The reason we have not done that yet is because other SAARC countries have to also give us permission to fly from India to their country dblquote , Chief Executive Officer, SriLankan Airlines, Peter Hill told Lanka Business Online in an interview on Friday.rn
rnldblquote With the exception of Pakistan where we can fly from Mumbai to Karachi, we dont have those rights to other SAARC destinations. We have asked the government to ge