Replacing a340s with a321s doesnt make sense....

Good idea should change the old 320s

Withdrawn Qatar Airways A321 A7-ADX Positions to Ostrava Maintenance.
01/01/2014

Withdrawn Qatar Airways A321 A7-ADX positioned Doha – Ostrava for maintenance this morning as QR3251. The aircraft will be prepared for service with Sri Lankan

That is an crazy idea on both capacity as well as range. It could be used for medium/long haul and A330 s can be used for long haul. Even A321 as narrow body cannot provide better business class experience. Anybody know about configs? Are they going to use same QR business seating?

Paintwork for 1st UL A321 (msn 3397) should be finished on 9th Jan 14. Pictures are coming soon.

We can expect some new flights to south india with additions of these A321s.

Ohhh itz a good news . Will wait for 4tos then . (Y)

I do not think this is a one on one replacement in the truest sense of the word. UL appears to be re-configuring their fleet and with their new objective of trimming down the non-profitable European frequencies and putting more emphasis of regional operations (which I think is the right move for the airline, at least in the short to medium term) they are acquiring more metal for the regional sectors.

UL is (rightly) desperate to dispose of the A343s and the shortfall created by such retirements will be compensated by using the incoming A321s on the few short-haul routes that they still operate A332s and using the freed A332s on routes that were operated by the outgoing A343s.

So, in other words, this is not a direct replacement of a A343 on the CMB-LHR-CMB by a A321 per se.

well said. if observed (but not completely) the ageing a343 (4R-ADA/B/C) of UL are usually operated on mostly short haul flights in recent times, in addition since UL entering oneworld in April 2014, and UL is gonna add more value to the oneworld network by giving the indian subcontinent (as far as i know), hence its a good decison to add a321's so they can increase frequencies to regional routes.

plus, since UL had to even wet lease a MJ a321 to increase MCT flights, which clearly shows even during peak times a/c's are occupied and why place a LCC a/c by a FSC (which clearly is not a good thing to do), it makes more sense to add a321's.

Incident: Srilankan A332 near Colombo on Jan 1st 2014, cracked windshield ​

QR having two types of seating in 321. 12/165 and 12/170. wonder which one is this. and still we havent operate mj 321 to mct.

oh really, i thought UL already operated the 7 the weekly flight to mct thru MJ equipment...

according to plane spotters and the qatar source the QR a/c that UL is taking delivery of is the A7-ADX - the seating is 12/165 and age 5.9 yrs

So More borrowing



& apple and oranges



listen dude (UL CEO) I really dunno what business school you went to

"SriLankan’s jet fuel prices are 47 per cent of its cost, aircraft leases are 15 per cent, and airport handling is at 8 per cent. “The financing cost for SriLankan is higher in comparison to some of the regional and Middle Eastern airlines,” he says. Mr. Chandrasena says that 85 per cent of their costs aren’t controllable on a management perspective"

Oil prices did not change dramatically in the year 2012/13 brent oil traded between $ 100 to 120 range. Your fuel cost are high that because you buy from CPC and you need to stop at Mattala. Fuel cost are controllable if you budget and managed it properly. You cannot get better financial rates coz you do not have great financial ratings...get it

"The controllable costs are salaries and wages which are at 10 per cent,” he says, stressing that for SriLankan, cost cutting isn’t an option" "

really dude cost cutting isn't an option (I wonder which business school came up with that theory) UL increased staff strength from approx 4000 (When EK left) to 6000 today; that is a 33% increase...did UL increase revenue that much for that justification and you say you did a saving by introducing iPADs? If your theory is that airlines are only making losses and does not need a turn around near future then that airline does not need to have CEO with a $5K monthly salary + perks. any one can run an airline with losses.

PS New Air crafts will not give you not more than 15% fuel cost saving. Since as per your record fuel is 47% of the cost that mean overall you saved 7%. will that be enough to turnaround the company???

Im curious wether if UL is goin to try out a new livery on the a321s

I know regional carriers now doing upto 4 hours plus on 321s .. and it is NOT a crazy idea ..

And the carriers I worked with have reconfigured with 12 Business (2+2 with AVOD) and 18 Premium Economy (3X3 with AVOD) and 169 regular economy (3X3 with no AVOD)

the first 30 seats are always sold out, and so is more than half of the economy, most of the times ..

so .. see, it works.

Agreed, they dropped the economy prices to near LCC, but hey, if they can fill it and make it worth the 321's cost, why not ?

and it beats trying harder to fill another 75 to 100 seats, on their next capacity plane.

Funny - UL's time table CMB to PEK is showing Mattala and BKK as technical stops. To my knowledge, technical stops are mainly for fuel (and in some cases crew change).