Hello

No ALG is not going to be scrapped. It's scheduled as a mod+lease return which means aircraft cabin configuration will be modified as a part of the lease return check.
As far as i know it will be reconfigured to full EY.
Since UL is very concerned about the young fleet concept they will anyway retire those 332s and it's a very good decision I must say. Because the cabin condition of those olf aircrafts are very hard to maintain with old equipment and specially we struggle a lot with seats of ALG.

Cheers

UL better continue serving LHR & FRA. Lots of passengers from India, Far east and Maldives are flying onboard UL to access LHR & FRA which are the current key destinations and these airports gives convienient connections towards other airports in the west. However UL should be cancelling the flights Rome and Paris. I would like to see UL expanding in Japan, China, India & Saudia. In the future UL better consider operating Toronto via LHR and New York via FRA to make it profitable.

More Domestic Airports

2016 Budget Proposals;
Three new domestic airports to be built in Badulla, Digana and Puttalam areas: Government Sources

My personal opinion would be to work on the Ratmalana Airport as its in quite a state and also Katunayake needs a bit more attention to come into par with other major airports in Asia.
Opening airports in Badulla and Digana maybe okay as it would provide a quick link to Nuwara Eliya and the Central Province but why Puttalam?

Loss making SriLankan Airlines will drop all its remaining European services with exception of LHR.
Under its ‘Red to Black Programme’ services to Frankfurt, Paris and Rome will be discontinued.

According to Budget Sri Lankan Airlines total outstading debt is at Rs.157 billion

Its sad to see EU routes (except LHR) goes out, but from business point of view it make sense.

Question for few experts in the forum - Does the OneWorld alliance making money for UL or does it costing too?

FitsAir MD 82 in operation

FitsAir operating Cargo flights from BLR to CMB on their MD82
Notice the similar flight number to UL's scheduled BLR flights
Hope UL and FitsAir team up and launch a few domestic flights soon

SriLankan Airlines

Honourable Speaker, the SriLankan Airlines has been badly managed since the management
was taken back from Emirates. Their total debt stands at Rs.158 billion, of which 72 percent
relates to the last 3 years of the previous regime. This could be mainly due to corruption,
cronyism and poor management. To point blankly state so is an injustice to the tax payers of
this country and also an understatement. This accumulated loss could have financed 45,000
buses, 25 fully fledged universities, 40 fully equipped modern hospitals and 48,000 houses.
Unfortunately the revival process of Sri Lankan Airlines also has been pedestrian.

Honourable Speaker, we will restructure and reposition SriLankan Airlines, with
professional management inclusive of local and foreign experts to be a regional airline
focused on profitable destinations.

I assure this august house that there will not be any political interference at SriLankan
Airlines and that we will turn around this entity towards making it a regional leader and
successful profit making national airline. The government will fully commit to this revival
process and will honour all the obligations however, unpalatable they are.

Ground handling and catering operations which at present are profitable will be managed as
separate institutions serving all airlines. They will operate as independent entities running as
common service provider to all airlines.

Mihin Lanka

Honourable Speaker, Mihin Lanka is also another relic of the Rajapakse regime that has
become a drain on the state coffers. We have already initiated a restructuring plan where,
Mihin Lanka will be positioned as a “no frills” budget airline. Mihin will concentrate its
operations mainly on domestic routes and will limit its operations to selected international
routes.

over to you Edtenna .

Sri Lanka to pursue an open sky policy with restriction free traffic to attract international airlines

The Sri Lankan Government will pursue an open sky policy with restriction free traffic in a move to attract international airlines to the country's two international airports and make Sri Lanka a preferred destination.

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake presenting budget proposals for 2016 to parliament pointed out that there is considerable travel between Africa and East Asia and it is estimated to grow substantially in the next 10 years.

He proposed to the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotional Bureau to get together with the international Airlines to create strategies to attract those tourists and entice them to stopover in Sri Lanka in their travel from East to West.

With a view to promoting domestic tourism in the country, the Minister proposed to exempt airlines using domestic airports from ground handling charges and other fees. They will be liable to pay only a license fee of Rs.1.5 million per year.

To improve the domestic air transportation, three new domestic airports will be established at Digana, Badulla and Puttalam through a PPP arrangement.

What are the possible flights Mihin will stop?

Probably: Chennai, Male, Muscat & Bahrain

These guys should sell Mihin off along with the Hilton, Mobitel and other non strategic assets they are planning to flog off. I don't think Mihin is of strategic importance to SL although SriLankan arguably is. Plus it will encourage competition.

In any case does anyone have any idea whats happening with the 2x A320NEOs on order for MJ? Are they going to UL instead?

Are Flydubai still at Mattala? thought that ended in April.

Yes they are