IATA: SriLankan Airlines to join Oneworld

By: Mavis Toh Beijing
1 hours ago

Oneworld will this morning unveil SriLankan Airlines as its latest member elect during the annual general meeting in Beijing.

Full details will be disclosed by Oneworld chief executive Bruce Ashby and SriLankan Airlines chief executive Kapila Chandrasena during a media event at the AGM today.

The Sri Lankan flag carrier is expected to join the alliance late next year, with Cathay Pacific Airways as its sponsor, guiding it through the implementation process.

The carrier already codeshares with Oneworld member designate Malaysia Airlines, which is itself due to join the alliance this year. It will soon also announce an agreement in principle to codeshare with fellow members Royal Jordanian and S7 Airlines.

"With the world airline industry increasingly focused on alliances, SriLankan has carried out in-depth analysis of the options open to the airline as we enter this latest phase of our development. Oneworld is very clearly the best option for us. Joining the alliance will help put SriLankan more firmly on the global aviation map and vastly improve our connections with the rest of the world," says airline chairman Nishantha Wickremasinghe.

SriLankan will add three new destinations in southern India - Kochi, Tiruchirapalli and Thiruvananthapuram - to Oneworld's network of 850 destinations in 150 countries. It operates 21 aircraft to 34 destinations in 22 countries.

After Air Berlin joined the alliance this year, Oneworld now has 11 active members.

SriLankan to fly more destinations in China

SriLankan Airlines are looking at adding another destination in China by the end of the year making it four.

This would be in addition to Beijing, Shanghai and Gansu. Chairman Srilankan, Nishantha Wickramasinghe speaking to Daily News Business said that both China and India are growing markets and SriLankan needs a strong presence there. The Chairman also disclosed that Mihin Lanka would be flying to Madurei in three months time. He said this year 53 million Chinese are expected to travel out of China and SriLankan wants to increase its presence in China to capture this market.

He said that this was the reason the airline decided to have daily flights to both Beijing and Shanghai from July 15.

“We are currently studying the market potential and the destination is likely to be Kunming where there are many attractions for both business and leisure,” he said.

The Chairman said that in addition to increasing frequency and destinations to China, SriLankan would also look at operating flights to Seoul, South Korea by the end of the year.

Commenting on Mihin Lanka and Sri Lankan he said that both airlines are working successfully and they would soon reach break even points. “We had to reinvest in SriLankan as the airline needed a facelift and it also wanted new aircraft.

The Chairman also said that they would soon go for a dry lease for two sea aircraft. “We have now trained our own pilots who would take over this operation.”

He also disclosed plans to acquire an additional amphibious aircraft that could land in both water and land.Wickramasinghe said that they would have two more aircraft by 2015 thus further increasing the fleet.