I shouldn't copy the whole news due to copyright issues. Anyway I have posted the highlights below.

Nishantha Wickremasinghe told ATW as per March 2013 :

SriLankan Airlines is working to prepare for its oneworld membership and is on track to join the alliance early next year. The Sri Lankan flag carrier is also expanding its Colombo hub and renewing its fleet.

"Hard work has been done to prepare SriLankan for the alliance, especially within the IT sector. I am expecting to be a full member with oneworld early next year.”;

"We are looking to replace it's A340-300s in next 24 months. We are indeed looking to the A330s and may later consider the A350. We need a new, young, modern fleet,” he said, adding that fuel costs for the small carrier are 43% of overall costs. He said SriLankan is also looking to the A321neo, but has not yet determined how many the airline will eventually order.

"Planning to add direct flights Australia as part of the strategy to build up it's hub. Also planning to add flights to Gan Isles.

"Our target in the business plan to grow the fleet to 30 aircraft.

Wickremasinghe said there are no plans to privatize the carrier or to bring in a strategic investor. SriLankan is in the middle of a five-year restructuring plan, which should be completed by 2016. The Sri Lankan government holds a 94.68% stake; the remaining shares will be held by its employees.

This is emergency exit row... u cant recline emergency exit row seats..

ALD is still configured as per the old cknfig 12/275.
ALG got 18/236 as per BMI config. And have flat beds but not like same as our current flat beds...

Hope Melbourne will the the Aus destination since its the biggest city to hold Sri Lankan's outside Lanka!

That makes sense. So the other seats in Y have recline?

Ofcourse why not i have personelly checked that.. I doubled checked it today with some friend who flew to sin/kul last week.

British Airways in Sri Lanka

BA pulled out in 1998 for commercial reasons, not security concerns

British Airways (BA), which resumed flights to Colombo on Monday after a 15-year break, says the pull out was for commercial reasons and not due to security concerns relating to the conflict.

“Our suspending flights in 1998 were purely for commercial considerations and load factors. It had nothing to do with security or the war. We believe today, commercially, it makes sense to fly here,” Keith Williams, BA CEO told the Business Times in Colombo.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a reception in the capital on Monday evening to mark the resumption of flights. The flight which arrived from Gatwick airport, London via the Maldives brought several BA officials and British travel writers.

The airline will operate thrice weekly to Colombo with an option of increasing flights if the demand rises.

“This is a big growth market and a very competitive one. We see an opportunity in business and tourist traffic,” he said.

The UK, for many years the largest source market for Sri Lankan tourism, is now second to India.

WhicH aircraft???? B727, DC-8, IL-18?????

It said that this freighter flight operated by Expo Lanka, who are operating only IL18s and AN12 not B727. I wonder if they are still keeping DC8 at CMB as I havn't seen their DC8 in CMB recently.

900 kg ? would have been cheaper to drag a C208 all the way, HRI to MAA

The shipment which has taken place during last week has contained garment accessories, weighing 900kg.

Maybe a belly cargo

Looks like UL is buying 6 A333 and 4 A359s (all RR engines). The article appears to show the list prices rather than the actual discounted!

UL gets 6 A330-300 & 7 A350-900

The Cabinet has approved two and half billion US dollars for a re-fleeting programme of SriLankan Airlines.

The programme, approved on April 18, entails the purchase of six Airbus A330-300 aircraft with Rolls Royce Trent engines. Also to be purchased are four state-of-the-art Airbus A350-900 with Rolls Royce XWB engines.



6 - A330-300




7 - A350-900

Such a major trade deal was given the green light when the cabinet met for its weekly meeting on April 19. This was when it was decided to offer a multi-billion dollar deal to Air Bus Industrie with British-built Rolls Royce engines in a major re-fleeting for the national carrier, the fledgling SriLankan Airlines. According to the annual report of the Central Bank for 2012, released just last week, “The total revenue of SLA (SriLankan Airlines) increased by 36.1 per cent to Rs. 107.4 billion, while the operating expenditure increased by 30.6 per cent to Rs. 128 billion resulting in an operating loss of Rs. 20.5 billion. Emerging competition from other international airlines and the volatility of fuel prices has adversely affected the profitability of SLA. Mihin Lanka recorded an operating loss of Rs. 1 billion in 2012 compared to the operating loss of Rs. 455.3 million incurred in 2011.”

Mounting SriLankan Airlines losses and a financial crisis prompting an electricity price hike notwithstanding, the Cabinet last Thursday approved a request by the Minister of Civil Aviation, for US$ 80 million (Rs 10.1 billion). It came on a recommendation made by Civil Aviation Minister Priyankara Jayaratne. The amount is just a part of the monies needed for SriLankan Airlines to purchase six Airbus A 330 aircraft powered by Rolls Royce Trent 700 engines. SriLankan Airlines will also buy four A350-900 aircraft powered by Rolls Royce Trent engines. In addition, three more A 350-900 will be obtained on lease by Sri Lankan Airlines. Minister Jayaratne has not told cabinet how the moneys required for the deal would be obtained nor explained how the US$80 million for which he obtained approval would be disbursed.

According to Jayaratne, the wide-body fleet of SriLankan Airlines which consist of 13 aircraft (six A-340s and seven A 330-200s) need to be replaced at the end of their respective lease terms which fall between 2014 and 2019. The age of the wide-body fleet, he has said, at present ranges from 13 to 18 years for the A-340s and from nine to 13 years for the A 330 aircraft. He has said that SriLankan Airlines requires new aircraft to replace the current wide-body fleet and this cannot be timed with the return of all existing wide-body aircraft to lessors upon expiry of lease terms.

The Board of Directors of Sri Lankan Airlines had appointed a team headed by its Chief Executive Officer Kapila Chandrasena to “provide expert advice” to the internal team in the selection process. Others included the Chief Operations Officer, Head of Finance and the Head of Engineering. A person described as an�“External Consultant” had assisted the team. They reviewed offers from the US based company Boeing which offered its new generation ‘Dreamliner’ either with Rolls Royce or General Electric engines.

Now that the decks are cleared for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in November, arrangements will no doubt be stepped up from this week. That is notwithstanding a situation where the Government is cash strapped and is forced to raise electricity rates. Now, billions will have to be found to procure new aircraft for Sri Lankan Airlines. The critical question is whether the taxpayer would have to pay more for different goods and services in the weeks and months to come.

The aircraft are almost certainly going to be leased which means there shouldnt be such a large capital outlay as described. And anyway they have shown the list prices. The question at hand is should the government keep propping up an airline it quite clearly cannot maintain profitably. As someone said before, give Mahinda his own plane and eithe privatise or shut it down. Its likley to be the cheaper option.

Needless to say, I am sure there must be some middlman/men who are getting some hefty kickbacks.