Woes of Italy is its own making;there are other successful countries in the G8...like Germany and Canada...if I had to take bet if the airline is better off privately or publicly; well I will bet on most of the airlines in the private sector is doing well.... JetBlue, WestJet, Easy Jet, Ryanair, Virgin Australia, Emirates, Jetstar, Singapore Airlines are all profitable airlines. "Take time very long time!!!" is just not good enough

Well all passengers shit on the airlines they are flying; how do you travel 10+hrs without taking a shit on a airline? I do not drink Kool aid; UL does not have business model gambling and loosing tax payer’s money will ruin the entire country.

wrong man...Etihad is doing well for example, Kuwait is doing well, Aeroflot is doing well and they are GVT based...Privatize a pubblic thing is not a good thing anywhere! This must be a Pubblic Service and pubblic service are runned by the state or by a private sector working for the state! I'm with you saying that ALK manager is making few mistakes....but rember the fleet replacing scheme?? with more fuel efficency and high standards A350 and A330?? replacing the ageing A340?? Fuel is the most problematic subject of every airliine in the world except airlines in the Middle East!!!

Please read and learn before posting factually inaccurate statements. You sound like a young person and it is great to see you joining the conversation, but please be accurate.

This is exactly the reason why I am against spending any more money on UL. Sri Lanka will be far better off without its pride carrier. There are plenty of other better and more efficiently run airlines that will operate to Sri Lanka for the benefit of the tourists and the traveling locals.

As I have said here before, MR should have his own plane. He deserves to have one, as the head of state. It is a colossal waste of public money to maintain an entire airline for the purpose.

Ignorant statement. Etihad is run professionally, well at least more professionally than our stupud airline, where the president commandeers a plane whenever he feels like and wants to offload paying passengers or sends a plane to the Carribean so our political elite and clown CB governor can have a good time. You think Etihad will do anything close to that? Also Etihad has a far better credit standing, is funded wholly by local banks which are extremely liquid therefore they can invest in a new aircraft and a better hard product. UL doesn't have any of that. You are just spewing out words without understanding the fundamentals, a prima facie assesment.

UL needs to be shut down, we are throwing money into a hole and its just disappearing. Some people are getting rich, a select few who are politically connected. The rest of the country is losing. Shut it down, and let other profitable airlines operate in and out of SL. For example, EK, EY, QR etc will pick up the routes. We can use the money going into the UL black hole of other development purposes. Not to mention the service levels, punctuality and hard products offered will be far far superior to the cr@p offered by UL.

There is no use throwing good money towards a bad investment, cut your losses and get out. Invest elsewhere.

Also why should an airline be a public service? In a free market, the state intervens when either the private sector cannot/wont provide a service or where the free market breaks down (signal, incetive, rationing breaks down). An airline, does not fall into this category. The private sector will run it brilliantly, as airlines the world over have shown. What the government should do, is regulate it. Minimum safety standards, protecting consumer interests via ensuring no anti competitive practises take place etc. We do not need the State to own and run an airline, especially when its pretty clear to everyone, including an infant, that they are wholly incapable of doing so.

Please dont now come out and say that the only reason the Middle East airlines make money is because their fuel is free, ITS NOT. Anyway you can look elsewhere around the world to see other profitable airlines.

Do a decent assesment and understand your argument before making it, and back it up by facts.

Absolutely...Nature will finds its Way (Jurassic Park)

I'm a Flight Dispatcher for MEA (Middle East Airlines) in Malpensa that's why I know about Fuel

i'm not saying it is free for them but it is cheaper for them as their HUB sell the fuel for them at lower price that is also lower than other places in the world .
Different Point of view especially form one who is in the field...It is not me not you that will bring UL up...let it all happen I know that UL is not runned professionaly but is not only to blame the Manager Director

Sri Lanka state-carrier looks for foreign finance

Oct 31, 2013 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's state-run SriLankan Airlines is negotiating a 250 million US dollar facility for working capital, a top official said.

The carrier is looking for 4-year funding, from international markets chief executive Kapila Chandrasena said.

SriLankan Airlines has mapped out an ambitious re-fleeting program involving fuel-efficient Airbus A-350 XWB and new A3330 aircraft to replace its gas guzzling ageing A330 and A340 aircraft and turnaround its finances.

But until the new aircraft comes, the airline is expected to lose money.

SriLankan's biggest expenses are fuel, which has to be imported.

SriLankan had earlier raised finance from the Middle East.

State-run full service carriers in the region have been facing pressure from more efficient citizen-owned budget carriers that gaining market share in the region. http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/n...nce/1916409082

Really so you know about Fuel...please do explain how is Jet A1 is cheaper in Singapore (which does not have single drop of crude) than in Colombo. Sri Lanka is the second most expensive Jet A1 after Maldives.

And I am wondering if our friend knows, though EK is semi-Emirates owned, still they pay for fuel at the same price as any other airline, their benefit comes in lower handling fee/ground services etc ..

yah, about Fuel, how come Singapore has cheaper Jet A1 ?

So cheap, we have seen Carriers doing - Say, KUL/JKT/MNL/DPS and the likes uplifting fuel from Singapore on their stopover, than pick up on their next transit/stopover in any city in Middle East ?



the only airlines that get lower cost fuel are those who hedged, and massively hedged, like AK, for Example.. who managed to outdo MH simply due to their hedging..

To all those who keep yapping about our national airline, please kindly STOP showing your hatred towards it, it doesn't sound ethically right nor does it send a good image of us Sri Lankans to others coz let's just face it, all other nationalities love to talk good things about their airlines no matter how rubbish it is or what!!

...just becoz most of us are against the tactics and strategies of MR doesn't mean we show hatred towards our national airline. Personally speaking I am SO NOT a fan of MR either, but I support our national airline coz at least we Sri Lankans have an award winning national airline that we still can boast of compared to other regional countries and those regional nations only have a premier pvt airline only to flaunt of and NOT a national airline.

Although I agree our standards have gone down, but again that's mainly due to demotivated staff. Yet again motivation of staff goes up when financials begin to improve, (perfect example is BA - where it has gone down in so many ways (once upon a time a legendary airline) due to financial hurdles.

Sri Lanka is one of the nations with the highest levels of political corruption and its certainly not easy to do business there even if you are a private entrepreneur. And its certainly not our duty to worry about the financials of UL, it would get on its own two feet some day. Becoz of an airline is the reason why thousands of people are employed in other industries (not just in Sri Lanka but all over the world).

All I am asking is to shift the discussion to something else coz I am sick and tired of the bullcrap many have posted here (just show some dignity people rather than acting like grade 2, 3 kids) or just change the name of this forum/website to an airline/aviation industry of a specific country we all love to talk positive things about...XD

I suggest you stop yapping about 'our award winning airline and boasting about it compared to other regional countries'

I do not want to spend billions for the ability to be able to boast to our regional friends and I am not sure what awards you are talking about, please highlight.

My argument is that the money can be used elsewhere where its really needed. We do not need an airline, its a luxury, and we really do not need a loss making airline. We need education, infrastructure, healthcare, food security and poverty eradication.

I'm going to stop now, as I do agree this is a discussion forum on aviation, not a place to debate the merits of having UL. We have it, are saddled with it and we just have to live with it because the powers that be say so, and we can do diddly squat about it.

Ironic, because I, for one, is a big supporter of what MR has set about doing and have no problem expressing my gratitude in public. My criticism of UL is DESPITE my appreciation for MR.

Unlike some of the previous regimes MR has been able to get to country back on its feet with massive infrastructure projects that are inconceivable just a few years ago. An Expressway to the airport in the making since 1976 (Non-Aligned Nations Conference), extension of railways beyond Matara (first inch of NEW track to be laid since the Brits left) just to name a few.

Since the independence, every administration in SL has been corrupt to varying degrees, but MR (and perhaps to lessor degree R. Premadasa) are the only two leaders who actually made any difference, notwithstanding the corruption.

Despite all this, I am against wasting more money on a deadbeat airline that provides mediocre service, burns through PUBLIC money faster that Blackberry and makes very little if not NO contribution to the nation.

The money spent on UL could be spent elsewhere more effectively, thereby benefiting the entire nation, not just a few selected morons.

Not sure you do.

According to this, the fuel price in CMB is USD 3.32 / USg and in DXB it is 3.23 and in DOH it is exactly the same as CMB (3.32). So, where is cheap fuel?