Business trips to Mattala? UL flights to HRI were heavily subsidized

We have no pictures yet. We will share them as soon as we have one.

Most ppl on Airliners.net seem to think UL will take the initial 3 leased frames and swap the later direct orders for either A330NEOs or A321NEOs. What happens remains to be seen!

Hi guys,

all of the three leased frames for UL have entered the Final Assembly Line in Toulouse:

MSN52 | UL#1 - Station 18, Outdoor ground test (pictures shound appear very soon !) - I expect this one to be painted in ~ 2 months

MSN55 | UL#2 - Station 30, Indoor ground test & cabin customisation

MSN60 | UL#3 - Station 50, Fuselage join

If everything works well, Airbus should be able to deliver all the three frames by at least ~ September / October 2016

Thanks A350-XWB, Fingers crossed!! Waiting for pictures

The UL A350 order won't be canceled. The penalties of a cancellation are too expensive. (1.5 million USD per A350)

1.5 Million USD/aircraft is peanuts - lease payments will be around 1.3 Million USD/aircraft/month. Plus the costs of training/spares. They don't need these aircraft.

It makes no sense whatsoever - so there must be more going on.

Speculation - maybe the Politicians/Cronies would have to pay back the Commission on this deal if it was cancelled. That sure as hell isn't going to happen.

There is no question that some people made a lot of money on this deal.

Sri Lankan tax payers on the hook for Millions more.

No investigation (just more talk) and nobody held to account. Tragic.

I agree but I think its just a matter of the journalists or the official getting their figures mixed up. Wouldnt be surprised if this figure is meant to be $1.5m per month given that these are leased frames.

In any case given the potential penalties its better for UL to take the first 3 aircraft (since theyre pretty much assembled) and renegotiate the order for the other 4 aircraft.

Cinnamon and Helitours are pricing it correctly. A Caravan costs about 1,200 US$ per hour of flight, or there about, so how much would you want them to charge ? Or run at a loss ?

Don't forget there are lot of costs operating in SL, vs other countries.

But I do have reservations about SLAF competing with the private sector - you can say all about they are making money - but Armed forces are not supposed to be making money, and competing with private sector, and doing it cheap - they are killing the competition.

I may disagree, UL needs these planes. Just because fuel is cheap doesn't mean one of these days if somebody goes to war with somebody else, it will still stay low.

Better to update to better metal, than be an outdated airline.

I do agree there may have been kick backs - as somebody said - cost of doing business - but they weren't over priced. In some trades, the item sells for 100$, with a 10$ commission, and if you insist you don't want the commission, the supplier wont' reduce your price. Still you pay 100 $ And aircraft sales has something along that line. Of course, you can negotiate the 10 $ commission to something else worth 5$, but those going into politics are not there to serve the country - they want to come out with a 10 to 50 million $, and that's still not enough.

UL Management is on record as saying that they don't need these aircraft.

Not when the Airline has lost $1 Billion dollars and is insolvent (see Weliamuna Commission report).

Again see the Weliamuna Commission report. This deal is questionable at best. The fact that only new aircraft are being ordered says enough imho.

There is ample opportunity for theft, fraud and corruption. I have outlined previously how this works. See the previous MiG deal as an example of how this works.

It is almost impossible to conduct legitimate business in Sri Lanka because there is zero accountability.

The real giveaway is the fact that all investigations into this deal are being blocked. Tells me all I need to know.

Is UL confirmed its going to operate 5 weekly to FRA from July 2016? I'm having issues accessing UL timetables on their website from mobile.

SriLankan Airlines from July 2016 is boosting operations on Colombo – Frankfurt route, with the addition of 5th weekly flight. The new flight operates on Mondays, on board Airbus A330-300, effective 11JUL16.

UL553 CMB0005 – 0705FRA 333 1
UL553 CMB0025 – 0730FRA 333 357
UL557 CMB1215 – 1920FRA 333 6

UL554 FRA1520 – 0450+1CMB 333 x246
UL558 FRA2050 – 1020+1CMB 333 6

SriLankan Airlines #1 A350XWB aircraft bearing test registration F-WZFA spotted for the first time on Flightradar24.com.

Well spotted so she is already with engines?

I think it's too early for her to have engines. It probably got picked up on flightradar24 when the aircraft was powered on and the ADS-B transponder became active.