MIHIN Lanka will boost its Jakarta-Colombo services from thrice- to four-weekly starting February 2, and is looking to tap the budget traveller and backpacker segments to fill the extra capacity.

Mihin Lanka business development manager, Malintha Fernando, said: "The labour market currently makes up about 90 per cent of our load, and we want to balance and gradually shift it to more leisure market than labour market."

While the labour market provides high load factors for the route, the yields are relatively low, according to Mihin Lanka sales manager Indonesia, Fonny Wijaya.

The airline has so far introduced 3D/2N and 4D/3N Sri Lanka packages starting from US$600 per pax, and is planning to launch Dubai and Maldives packages, both via codeshare with SriLankan Airlines.

"We have codeshares for all SriLankan services, so basically we can sell all destinations they have at more economical prices," explained Fernando.

Wijaya added: "We managed to sell tickets to places like Milan, Rome, and London through our codeshare with SriLankan Airlines. Our prices during peak season were about US$300 lower than major airlines."

Mihin Lanka operates Airbus A321 aircraft with 210 seats in an all-economy configuration.