May be Airbus is waiting for the order to be annouced in Paris next month, as they tend to 'accumulate' orders scored just prior to the airshow for collective annoncement, to gain the maximum piblicity.

UL Article

Anyone got access to the UL article on Page 9 of the Daily FT today (21/05/2013)

SriLankan Airlines , to be best in the region by 2015. Interview with Nishantha Wickramasinghe : http://www.ft.lk/2013/05/21/srilanka...2015-chairman/

Thanks Banu!

Thanks for the article! Im assuming here that he is talking about refurbishing the older four A320s? Not an expert but rather than spending $12m on each of these aircaft to bring them up to scratch, wouldn't it be cheaper if their leases are terminated and replaced with newer aircraft? Would like some clarification on this!

At least he recognises that the products and lounges need to be improved which is good. Hope they include direct aisle access on the business class seats on the new widebodies which they just ordered!

flydubai’ begins flights to Mattala .

Wednesday, 22 May 2013 12:09

.‘flydubai’, Dubai's low-cost airline, began flights to Mattala Rajapaksa international Airport at Mattala today (Wednesday) , officials of Jetwing Air , Sri Lankan general sales agent of ‘flydubai’ said.

‘flydubai’operates flights to Mattala three-times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from today and daily from June 3, General Manager of Jetwing Air J.D.Wieman told Times Online. He expressed optimism that the number of passengers from Mattala will increase within the next few months, although the bulk of passengers is from Colombo currently. There will be a demand for ‘flydubai’ flights from the North, East and South with the popularity of the airline and additional flights are in response to anticipated passenger demand in the near future, he added.
“From today we operate 10 flights from Colombo to Dubai and three out of it via Mattala” Sales Manager Jetwing Air (flydubai) Suren Balsuriya revealed. "The total number of weekly flights would go up to 14 and out of it 7 will be via Mattala from June 3," he added.

More than 30 per cent of ‘flydubai's’ total passenger traffic to Sri Lanka in 2012 was connecting traffic from the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) regions and the Middle Eastern countries. (Bandula)

Will not last too long i suspect !

you maybe wrong on that ..

No evidence to back it though my experience says I maybe right

i thought they are stopping operations end of May

next October onward, TK going to operate 7 flights per week and next year onward 14 flights per week..................

SriLankan Airlines starts nonstop flights to Moscow

SriLankan Airlines to start nonstop flights to Moscow starting from 29 October 2013 onboard A330-200. These Moscow flights departs Colombo as UL531 on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 11:30 and lands in Demodedovo at 19:05. Return flight departs Demodedovo as UL532 on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 20:15 and lands in Colombo on the following day morning 06:15. It's a good opportunity for the Russian Tourists who fly to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, easily. Currently SriLankan Airlines operates twise a week flight to Demodedovo but it's via Dubai onboard A320s.

Very bad news! if it's true. How did you findout Flydubai going to terminate the service to Mattala ? Reservation for Flydubai's Mattala showing open on the airline website for period effective May and June. Please note Flydubai operates the Mattala tag on Colombo. I doubt this route will fail.

SriLankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka, introduces Upgra‘d e-auction, which gives passengers the opportunity to bid for business class upgrades, online. Upgra‘d is an extremely user-friendly online procedure, where an economy class ticket holder booked on a SriLankan flight operating to any SriLankan online destination can place a bid for an upgrade by filling in and submitting an e-form available in the website. It opens up an array of business class comforts ranging from cosy flatbed seats to the AVOD inflight entertainment system that has the latest audio/video on demand and games. Complementing this facility are the wide screens with superior high resolution picture quality for infinite viewing pleasure. (gulfnews)

Emirates Increases Colombo Service

Emirates Airlines said it is increasing frequencies to Colombo by three a week to 31, to cope with rising demand.

The three new flights will be operated with Boeing 777-300ER aircraft in two class configuration, adding 126 Business Class and 1,158 Economy Class seats each way per week on the route, as well as 23 tonnes of additional capacity for cargo per flight.

Extremely sorry for the incorrect info Banu.. it was Air Arabia.... i got mixedup.. sooooo sorry for the hassle.