India's busiest international route in 2015

The Mumbai-Dubai route was India's busiest international city pair in 2015, with 21.5 lakh people flying between the two business centres.

Delhi-Dubai followed as the second busiest sector with 17 lakh people flying between the two cities last year, according to Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data.

And don't be surprised by the inclusion of Colombo as a hot city pair for India. In 2015, SriLankan Airlines, a member of the British Airways-led Oneworld, carried almost 13 lakh people into and out of India — more than mega carriers like Lufthansa (11.1 lakh) and Singapore Airlines (11.9 lakh) -because of the connections it provides from Colombo to Indian globetrotters.

SriLankan Airlines Cancels Rome Service from May 2016

SriLankan Airlines today (16FEB16) had adjusted its operation for summer 2016 season, which sees the closure of Colombo – Rome service. Last flight for this 3 weekly flights is scheduled on 30APR16, as reservation for flights on/after 01MAY16 is closed.

I maybe a bit dumb, but why over night crew in MLE ? Why can't they have two crew on board ? A lot of airlines are doing this, as cost cutting measure, for quite some time. Including Flight Deck crew.

Or the dead heading Flight crew hitch a ride on a partner airline - as some regional airline in SEA are doing.

Overnighting is a privilege and for airlines flying 3 hour + Sectors, overnighting is becoming rarer and rarer

Yes, but since then ejanson has explained why it is not very viable due to the fuel costs in MLE.

Is it necessary for two crew as well? (I have no idea on the restriction on flying hours for the crew, I am asking from the point that MLE is only a small deviation in flight time).

Flight time itself will be rather small. But when you take into account block times it at LHR and MLE it will add up considerably.

I cannot be certain about this but I do believe crew members are on the clock from the time they ''check in'' for their flight meaning before they even board the aircraft. Taking that factor into consideration it might make their allowed duty hours quite strained.Maybe not above legal limits but definitely alot more than pure flying time.

Flying LHR-MLE-CMB frequently had the crew exceeding max allowable duty hours. Same issue with a single crew operating CMB-MLE-LHR. Both flights were flown with 3 Pilots and 12 Cabin Crew.

So they needed to position a crew the night before to operate MLE-CMB or to operate MLE-LHR.

Crew arriving from LHR gets off in MLE and positions MLE-CMB the next day. There was a time the crew positioned on the same aircraft MLE-CMB but the rostering agreement must have been changed.

You also lose all the seats required for use by the positioning crews. All adds up to serious $$$.

India, Sri Lanka to begin talks on new Air Services agreement

According to a statement released after the ninth Joint Session of the Joint Commission meeting held between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Sri Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera in Colombo.

The Joint Commission urged early signing of the revised Air Services Agreement that has been pending since September 2013. Both sides agreed to enhance cooperation in the aviation sector, including in areas of aeronautical search and rescue, capacity building and training and use of the Indian satellite system GAGAN.



If Government can request fifth freedom rights then it will be a real game changer………

Colombo – Chennai – Paris – Chennai – Colombo

France has indeed a strong economic presence in Tamil Nadu: more than a quarter of the nearly 18 billion USD of French investments throughout India is concentrated in Tamil Nadu.

Colombo – Cochin – Frankfurt – Cochin – Colombo

Germany is the third biggest market for Kerala in terms of tourist arrivals. As many as 77,698 tourists from the country reached Kerala last year.

I thought SV terminated sending their 747s to sl. but this is today

Last 744 to CMB is now on sked for 28 March 2016 as per airlineroute.net

And this side of the world, quite a few Regional airlines go on forced rest.

Like in PR, after flight service, they dim the lights - even during day flights and the flight crew go to rest (maybe because most of the crew on International flights are old men and women .. ).

So even though they clock the number of hours, they aren't that tired. When they land, they are pretty fresh.

Likewise EK too, on night flights, switch off and crew take turns to rest.

Big Question to Answer ?

Balumgala 19 2 2016 Air lanka

OMG how Priyankara Jayaratne gives his statement.

53rd DGCA Conference 2016 in Colombo

The 53rd Conference of Directors General of Civil Aviation of Asia Pacific Region ("DGCA53") to be held at Hilton Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka from to 01st to 05th of August 2016 under the theme of ‘Fostering safe, secure and efficient aviation system in an eco-friendly environment with no country left behind’

Prior to DGCA53, the 6th Meeting of the Regional Aviation Safety Group (RASG/4) and the 4th Regional Aviation Security Coordination Forum (RASCF/2) will be held on 1st and 2nd of August 2016 at the same venue.

An annual conference is held by Directors General of Civil Aviation of the Asia-pacific countries since 1960 with the objective of working with a common stand in international rules and standards related to civil aviation with the view of affirming safety, security, regularity and efficiency in air transportation activities across frontiers.

It is the foremost event in the event calendar of the Asia Pacific Regional Office of the International Civil Aviation Organization.

Sri Lanka wins bid to host PATA Annual Summit

Sri Lanka has been selected to host the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Annual Summit in 2017 in response to the bid submitted by Sri Lanka Conventions Bureau (SLCB).

PATA CEO Mario Hardy made the announcement at a major event hosted by Sri Lanka Convention Bureau (SLCB) and SriLankan Airlines in Bangalore at Vivanta by Taj on September 05.

SriLankan Airline General Manager, Commercial Operations Dimuthu Tennakoon presented the latest plan for growth and the markets that the national airline would be tapping while SriLankan Chairman SriLankan Airlines Ajith Dias welcomed the guests explaining the Government policy towards the development of the national career.

Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is internationally acclaimed for acting as a catalyst for the responsible development of travel and tourism to, from and within the Asia Pacific region and The Association provides aligned advocacy, insightful research and innovative events to its member organisations, comprising 87 governments, 31 international airlines, airports and cruise lines, 61 educational institutions, and hundreds of travel industry companies in Asia Pacific and beyond.