Sri Lanka welcomed a record 2.3 million international visitors in the last full year for which travel data are available, even though the small South Asian country is not particularly easy to reach from the U.S.

Due to Sri Lanka’s small size and distance from North America, travelers bound for it have traditionally transferred through a hub such as Dubai, Singapore, or London or arrived as part of a wider trip through the region.

Europeans, meanwhile, have numerous direct options as airlines catch on to growing tourism interest and launch new routes.

The latest carrier to start a new flight between Paris and Colombo is low-cost carrier French Bee. Launched out of Orly Airport (ORY) in 2016 by French aviation executives Marc Rochet and Jean-Paul Dubreuil, it was initially envisioned as a holiday airline flying to destinations such as the Dominican Republic and French overseas territories like Réunion and Mauritius.

Low-cost airline French Bee launches new flights to Sri Lanka, The Maldives

As the late 2010s brought with them an explosion of low-cost airlines flying between the U.S. and Europe, the French Bee founders pivoted its fleet of Airbus A350 planes to launch routes to U.S. cities such as New York, Miami, and Los Angeles.

The new Paris-Colombo route, meanwhile, is part of a seasonal expansion meant to tap into growing tourist interest in the country. It was also designed as a connector route allowing travelers from the U.S. to reach Sri Lanka through a transfer or stopover in Paris.

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The flight will run seasonally between December 2026 and May 2, 2027. It will test demand alongside another route to Malé-Velana International Airport (VIA) in The Maldives that connects the three cities in a triangular route meant to maximize the number of purchased seats.

The route to Colombo Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB) will initially run as a triangular stop through Malé in December before launching direct on Jan. 11.

Colombo is the largest city in Sri Lanka.

French Bee: New flights seize on beach, cultural, nature, wellness tourism

Shutterstock French Bee CEO Marc-Antoine Blondeau anticipates strong demand for the new flights to The Maldives and Sri Lanka.

“It allows us to capture a high-potential market that remains underserved by direct flights from France,” Blondeau said. “By combining two highly complementary traveler profiles, we are tapping into both the beach-resort tourism of the Maldives and the booming cultural, nature, and wellness tourism in Sri Lanka.”

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More Travel News: The flights will be available for booking on the French Bee website on Dec. 16 and will start at introductory rates of €599 ($686 USD) for a round-trip in basic fare for Colombo and €649 ($743 USD) for Malé.

Earlier in the year, flag carrier British Airways also added a new route between London Heathrow (LHR) and Colombo that will launch in October 2026. This flight will run three times a week seasonally.

British Airways Chief Planning and Strategy Officer Neil Chernoff said he is “confident [the flight] will prove popular with our customers,” given that the 16.3% increase in international visitors to Sri Lanka at the start of 2026 came primarily from the United Kingdom.

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