UL shud increase more flts to fco since ek has increased frqncy effective 26oct and TK Has commencd flts from cta and to compete with these airlines. out of fco can connect other european & amercian destinations .

Well, from what I'm hearing is that Aus will be a destinations once the new ordered Aircraft start coming into operation ...Just a rough date of when, is the concern.

Well you also got to look at whether or not its profitable for UL.

From what has been discussed on this forum before, the answer is no (due to yield). This might change with the new aircraft though.

Yes, surprised they kept Rome instead of Milan.

UL used to fly to Australia before. Why was that a failure those days? Can some one explain please? Personaly I would love a direct flight from MEL as this would give an another alternative transit airport to my usual AKL-CMB route

*My two cents worth..... some of which are mirrored in the comments made above:
1. UL operated to SYD and MEL last back in July 2001. It was a triangle route, on certain dates calling in SYD first and on certain dates calling at MEL first. Similar to what AI and does at present. Flight numbers were UL 678/9. Flight was operated by A340-300.
2. Prior to which in the 1990s the route was done by L-1011.
3. The 23 July 2001 incident at CMB airport which lead to most aircrafts destroyed meant that the flight to AUS was cancelled and the aircraft redeployed.
4. (This fact is to be verified). It is said that the slot given up by UL was taken up EK. At that time it was not an issue as UL-EK were partners.
5. CMB-MEL-(SYD)-CMB flights success will hugely depend on, onward connections to Europe, Middle East and even India. EK, EY, QR SQ, TG, CX, AI all have flights operating to down under with seamless connections to other destinations. For that matter even a small player like RB (Royal Brunei) connects MEL flight to their LHR/DXB flight.
6. At the moment the UL European connections are all over the shop some in arvo and some in the early hours of morning.Like
* 7. EK uses its A380 from BNE, SYD and MEL across the pond to AKL very strategically. All these flights arrive into AUS in the early hours of the day. If they were to turn around these flight in a couple of hours and take them back to DXB. The flights would arrive in to DXB late afternoon or eve. Whereas most European and African connections are in the morning. Hence rather than making the aircraft sit on the ground it is used to fly to AKL and commence its journey back to DXB late eve from NZ/AUS and arrive into DXB early morning in time for good onward connections.
8. The same goes for the EK B77W service from SYD to CHC.
9. The only EK metal to sit on the tarmac is the EK B77W that operates DXB-SIN-MEL (EK404/5). Arriving at 0800hrs and leaving at 1800hrs to get into SIN late eve and DXB early morning.
10. EK404/5 seamlessly connects to EK348/9 (DXB-CMB-SIN) (SIN-CMB-DXB) flight in SIN with one hour connection either way in SIN. Good planning to get passengers from MEL to CMB.
11. Also UL needs to consider feeder flight availabilities from NZ and other destinations in AUS such are ADL etc.
12. Last not but not least the yields must be balanced with Cargo as well.Like
*
*My two cents worth..... some of which are mirrored in the comments made above:

.If UL is to operate to Australia, they will not able to justify these flights in terms of pax load unless they can offer connections to other destinations with out incurring significant transit times. Currently there is very heavy competition on Australia to Europe routes

Turkish Airlines going to increase Colombo service from 5 to Daily for Winter 2014.

IST - CMB 01:10 - 15:10 - CMB - IST 21:20 - 05:30 - TK730/1 - A333 - MO.TU.TH.FR.SA.SU via MLE
IST - CMB 03:05 - 17:35 - CMB - IST 21:20 - 05:30 - TK732/1 - A333 - WE via MLE

Today Mihin Lanka MJ 305/306 CMB - IXM - CMB is operated by 4R-MRE as CMB-HRI-IXM-CMB with flight number MJ 307/308. Any specific reason?

SriLankan Airlines to launch service to its fifth destination in China with Kunming service (CAPA, 2014)

SriLankan Airlines CEO Kapila Chandrasena said the carrier plans to launch service to its fifth destination in China, with planned service to Kunming (dailynews.lk, 25-Aug-2014). Mr Chandrasena commented, "At present we operate a total of 15 weekly flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Canton and Hong Kong and with this initiative we will be making our presence in the fifth destination in the South Western China". He noted that China is one of the key markets for the carrier, noting: “We also have intention to increase the number of destinations to secondary level regions in China, where most of these regions have over 100 million population and could attract and bring in more Chinese tourists into the country". He continued, “China is now emerging very fast in the world because it’s huge population, very progressive economic growth and in the next 15 years airline travel industry will be filled with Chinese and Indian travellers". He forecast that in the next 30 years, there will be a quantum growth in the Asian Pacific region and Sri Lanka has already laid the foundation to cater to that huge demand from Chinese and Indian travellers.

I would say SriLankan/Mihin Lanka are testing the routes out of Mattala. Already they tried few routes like Kuala Lumpur, Medan, Riyadh etc which are no - longer active. Mihin will serve One weekly flight on CMB-HRI-IXM-CMB until October 2014. Do you think their is sufficient passenger demand between HRI and IXM ?

China Eastern already operates three weekly Kunming - Colombo - Male flight onboard B737. Wondering why still SriLankan want to launch Kunming ?? Chengdu is a best destination for SriLankan , in my humble opinion.

No idea about HRI.

© CAPA

SriLankan Airlines further revised planned Colombo-Singapore operations on/after 26-Oct-2014 (Airline Route, 25-Aug-2014).

Planned adjustment for moving UL302/303 morning departure from Colombo to noon hours as UL308/309 remains unchanged, however, operational aircraft will be A320, instead of planned A321. UL302 currently departs Colombo at 07:20 with a 14:00 arrival in Singapore, with UL 306 departing Colombo at 01:55 and arriving in Singapore Changi at 08:35, according to OAG.

Ok How IXM-CMB route is doing for Mihin and Spicejet. Any possibilities Spicejet increasing frequency in this route? I can see Spicejet flying 7 weekly and Mihin flying 5 weekly between IXM and CMB.

Both are running with 75% to 85% occupancy in non peak season and with more than 85% in peak season. Past May and June, MJ and SG CMB route registered 91% and 90% respectively.

SG is already running as daily. No plan to increase frequency and no plan to upgrade aircraft. Mihin was showing 6x from winter (1 extra frequency on Fridays) till July. But now it shows only 5x in winter. For past 3 months, we are hearing that they will make it daily soon. Nothing confirmed.

By the way, can somebody confirm how many Y seats exactly do all their three aircraft have after reconfiguring with 12 Business Class seats??