SriLankan Airlines Sees Huge Growth Potential In Malaysian Market

SriLankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka, carried 6,000 passengers on its Colombo-Kuala Lumpur route in June this year, an increase of 10 per cent from a year ago.

"Malaysia has huge growth potential. Compared to last year, our sales has doubled," its chief executive officer-cum-director Kapila Chandrasena told reporters after launching its appointed General Sales Agent for Malaysia, AS World Vacation Sdn Bhd here, Thursday.

Describing Malaysia as a very important and priority market, Kapila said the airline planned to increase its capacity by increasing the wide-body aircraft operation.

"We are now using a narrow-body aircraft for Malaysia. We are thinking of changing into a wide-body aircraft to increase the capacity, and to make passengers feel comfortable," he said.

The airline currently offers two daily flights, with one being a morning flight from Colombo which arrives in Kuala Lumpur in the afternoon, and another which departs at midnight from Colombo and arrives in Kuala Lumpur early in the morning.

US airlines did not get bailout money in 2008, but they did after Sep 2001, when people were afraid of flying and to get people flying again. Dont mix up 2008 with 2001

Qatar started negotiation with Australia in 2003 and still there is no treaty. There are no bilateral agreement (AKA Treaty) between Qatar and Australia. There is an "interim" one.

"Mar 5, 2003 (Al-Bawaba via COMTEX) -- The Governments of Qatar and the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will allow for more air services between Doha and Colombo.
After a second round of talks between Qatar's Civil Aviation Authority, Qatar Airways and authorities from Sri Lanka, Qatar and Sri Lanka have agreed to increase weekly frequencies from seven to nine flights with any type of aircraft. The parties have also agreed to allow Qatar Airways to operate sixth freedom rights from Sri Lanka, which will allow Qatar Airways to fly to Colombo and then onto Singapore or Australia.

The parties agreed that if Qatar Airways opted to fly to Australia via Colombo, then the number of frequencies could be increased to ten per week.

Qatar Airways is presently integrating an aggressive growth strategy that will see it expand its route network from 38 destinations to 50 destinations by the end of next year. It presently operates 21 aircraft, and will increase this to 28 by the end of 2003. - (menareport.com)


By Mena Report Reporters"

you would like to know additional info on the Qatar request to operate Australia contact DGCA Sri Lanka (2003 - 2006) or Sri Lankan Min of Civil Aviation, Senior UL management at that time; or the current HE who was the PM at that time. Private conversation and business communication do not appear in the web. it is privileged few who knows what happened. When agreement or a MoU is signed then news release done by corporate communication or SL media center.

Sri lankan and qatari limited open sky agreement which was signed on 2003 was later amended to 28 flight per week.



Viability of UL
Sri Lankan made a loss of $150million+ (for FY 2011) and Mihin is still making losses now go figure...

To buy long rang aircraft you need money...it is that simple.

When US government gives loan guarantee or issues bonds they are given interest rate is calculated based on the credit rating which is AAA/AA+ compared to Sri Lankan gov rating which is below the investment grade i.e. you pay premium interest rates.

For those who think everything is hunky dory at UL and even CMB perhaps a read of these reviews (6 pages in total) will give you another POV.





Lot of negative impressions, and i sadly must agree with such based on my recent experience with UL in June 2012.

You simply do not run an airline like this, where the whims and fancies of Government stooges over rides the business model and where said stooges and sycophants holding high positions of authority are allowed to make poor, selfish, impractical decisions designed for their own “fun”. Even more saddening is the crushing and explusion of those in the management of UL who are capable and have good positive & good intentions.


It is really sad how an airline that was doing well and had lots of potential, has tanked.

I didn't mix up either situation thats why I posted the article just to make sure that you understood that some entities are too big or important to fail. And like anywhere else government have bailed out airlines and banks when the need has arisen and not simplyat kicked them out.

As for the treaty because it's not finalized, Qatar's presence is a shadow of what it can be here with flights into Melbourne and most recently into Perth. Thank you for the article on Qatar.

But knowing the Aussie market because I live and work here in a role in a team, which advises several airlines on their growth prospects within Australia and elsewhere, it would be like committing suicide, because the expat market won't be able to sustain sufficient demand for Qatar to operate successfully.

UL did make a loss but so did a lot of other airlines. Airline turnarounds don't happen overnight or even for a few years. After the 2001 bomb attacks on the airport, if you look at the growth pattern of UL it was basically a feeder for Emirates with no real growth in terms of aircraft. And after that stopped we came to a literal standstill till the end of the war. Now there is movement upwards like it or not.

It's an airline even our team keeps an eye on simply because we like the footprint in India and if it successfully forges ahead in china and eventually grows in Africa. It is at the perfect nexus and location to grow with theses areas, and believe me even if growth has slowed down it was way better than all other areas in the world save for a few like Australia and parts of South America. Sri Lanka is a better hub for an airline to grow because of its size because It doesn't have to concentrate on a significant domestic network. A membership fee has to paid which Cathay is doing for us, but the OneWorld membership is mainly in part to that potential. We would be able to significantly connect to many growth locations within a few hours from Sri Lanka.

That $150 million is in mostly due to the unsustainable oil prices (the stranglehold over oil should gradually decrease - if shale gas takes over in the US and other parts of the world, it's already having an impact because it's not economically sustainable) over the last year but also due to aircraft upgrades and also more importantly a look at getting the new business class product on board up to a reasonable standard because that's where we'll start to make money on loss making long haul routes. The flight simulator in Colombo for the A320, the possible Lufthansa MRO at HTT are investments that could generate further investments.
We need to get rid of those A340's as soon as possible because they don't really help the bottom line. For that we need money and since we lease on most occassions and don't buy outright the ratings agency argument doesn't hold place. Well if it did Emirates would never grow I.e because they don't even have a rating in Dubai, because its based on a request and not mandatory.

In any case I guess I look at with a more long term outlook because that's the only way I personally feel works and it's more the views of the airlines and strategy company I work for.

There is one thing that I don't agree with and that's the use of Sri Lankan for VIP charters and I feel that that's a deplorable act.

What you say sounds very promising and i really want UL to be the best and highly successful, it's just so disappointing to see it tank. The service was just foul when i flew last month, seats horrible, food equally horrible, uninterested cabin crew and toilets not so great.

This is one of the biggest problems, the grotesque levels of interference in the management, and free flights for so called VIPs and their stooges that eats into the airline.

Does UL have proper assets in terms of aircraft? Because all the planes they have were acquired by leases, ccorrect? Is the new A320 they got under lease or purchased by UL?

SriLankan expands to Moscow - SriLankan Airlines will boost access to Moscow with increasing Demodedovo flights from the current two weekly up to four weekly, from the 17th December 2012. All flights will be operated via Dubai however SriLankan will have local rights on DXB-DME for two out of four weekly flights - local rights applied to Mondays and Fridays only. The airline will deploy an 140 seater new A320-200 on this CMB-DXB-DME vv route. Rival airline, Emirates has announced they also will boost their DME capacity by replacing B773ER with A380 service effective 1st Dec 2012. Aeroflot has removed Colombo from their ARS for the Winter 2012 Season.

Flight Schedule

CMB-DME - 07:25 - 16:40 - UL531 - A320 - MO.WE.FR.SA via DXB
DME-CMB - 17:40 - 06:20 - UL532 - A320 - MO.WE.FR.SA via DXB

All of the UL fleet are under a lease. You can find the detailed UL Fleet-Data from our Fleet Watch

That is interesting to know .. while QF is doing all it can, to stop SQ expanding in AU market, and refusing the Kangaroo root, why do I see a dozen plus QF tails in Changi ?? Oh, well, QF holds majority shares in Orange Star -

Singapore never refused anybody - as long as they got reciprocal - heck, even when Indonesia is playing tough on Singapore, by refusing additional landing rights for 3K/VF, Singapore still allows those crates from Indonesia, with they 'use-by-date' long gone ..

For AK, AK want to leverage on Existing third freedom rights - and to remove traffic out of Singapore - to just do transit in Singapore - in other words, to not bring in pax to Singapore, but to use Singapore as a spring board to grab business, say, from Middle East to KUL .. for example. See how Air Asia Phi is operating ..

And any sane person who knows how AK operates will know that any of the AK's ventures, outside Malaysia, are craftily done so that not much profit or anything goes to the country of incorporation - almost all goes back to AK Holdings .. i.e. Tune Group.

All that Singapore and Changi needs is to be convinced that your airline is not going to remove traffic hitting Singapore .. all else if overlooked ..

A normal day in Changi will show you B737Advs, Classics, and a lot more types, primarily out of Indonesia ..

Hai
What are the latest developments of Mihin’s CMB-IXM –CMB Flight?
Are there any changes in the schedule earlier posted here?
When the booking can most probably commence?
When the official announcement can happen from Mihin?

Very interesting discussions

Thank you to Praetorian , KFlyer , Speedbird , slaviator , & to you Banu for very interesting & stimulating discussion points - very well done & very well researched
As a legacy carrier UL faces continuing challenges , I am sure our common goal is to see UL succeed ( one day in our dreams)

Thank you again & keep the robust discussions going , spare a thought for Federica Janz and her ongoing expose !!

Also a welcome relief from hearing about Madurai - can you move to other discussion board !!!! or I am the only one sick of reading about it , just fly to Tiruchchirapalli ans I will pay for the mini bus to Madurai

I care nothing for that worthless woman when you consider the fact Janz, Lasantha, Lal and that ilk are foul cretins who hate Sri Lanka with passion. Comically without Sri Lanka they are nobodies.

Their attitude during the war is why i know they care nothing for even the "expose's" they make other than promoting themselves, not out of some love for SL or "clean Governance".

If the kind of “journalism" practised by SundayLeader, LeN, LNW and Namini Wejidasa happened in the West such media institutions would be shut down, and such “journalists” would be unemployable or in prison for liable. If they dared try an ounce of open support or solicitation with the sworn enemies of the state, they would shot dead for treason without single protest or opposition. They are lucky to be in SL.

Now don't get me wrong, this does not excuse GR's puppy adventure. I'm disgusted. He was the only R i had a little faith in (he does great work and i appreicate it, and want him to continue) but the puppy adventure has proven that he too has got drunk on power, like the rest.

All this politically linked rumbling aside (which i have spawned in my rant above), we all want UL to be the best.

I really do not like slamming UL but it really really is heart breaking when you consider how this airline is being run into the ground, when SO EASILY it can be one of the best in the world, raking in huge profits.

Did anyone ask you to come to Madurai. You better move away if you are not interested instead of behaving like ....

UL cutting Bahrain completely or is Mihin taking over the route? As per Routesonline it ends Bahrain service in September after 40 years of continues service.