UL 's second A350 XWB was spotted yesterday when its being towed from the P18 station. May be it's been taken for rework.

Seen in Airliners.net

Caption says : F-WZFI (cn 055) 2nd A350 for SriLankan Airlines. Will be delivered as 4R-XWB

Okay then if this is true, UL#1 A350 should be 4R-XWA and UL#3 should be 4R-XWC
That's a change from 4R-A** registrations of SriLankan. :-O

Honestly, I am not sure if that was wrong, as long as the nozzle was removed and 'safed'.

Thats how I used to ship out PFDs. But connected and armed is no-no.

I see possibly some miscommunication or some other chatter that got the plane back to the gate - after all, each docking/push back costs $$$$

Emirates EK415 Registration No: A6-EDC Airbus A380 made an emergency landing today.

It just gets better and better!

Any idea about this:


It says the CEO wants to buy Bombardier aircraft? Not sure how they would be good for UL. MJ maybe (so that it can serve smaller Indian ports) but not UL.

That's a bad idea. There are some added expenses when you introduce a new aircraft (like equipments, parts, crew training etc). I don't think UL can afford that even if Bombardier CS100 is more economical to run in short-haul than Airbus A320. You cannot risk anything in a re-building period like this.

And in the case of an all new unproven aircraft like the C-Series, there are additional problems during entry into service (like what happened with the ANA 787s, Lufthansa A320NEOS). At the end of all these problems is more money being spent.

At the moment it is cheaper to fly the A320s with a few empty seats.

So far the C series has been a disaster. Not only the established operators are avoiding it like the plague, even the Federal government of Canada does not want anything to do with it.

Only good thing came out of it is that it keeps Boeing and Airbus honest on their narrow body pricing.

I can see the lure of it for the wheeler dealers though, because Canada's anti-corruption laws involving foreign sales are far more relaxed than that of US and UK.

As I keep saying:-

UL is not a business - it is a vehicle for transferring public funds to Politicians, their family, friends and cronies.

Aircraft orders have nothing whatsoever to do with the requirements of the Airline - it's all about the side deals, kickbacks and commissions to the Politicians, their family, friends and cronies.

These people have made millions of $$$ at the expense of the people of Sri Lanka. There's a good case to convict all these people of Treason imho.

There's no money so I can't see how this order could ever go ahead.

I read on the Sunday times that tells SriLankan Airlines is going to be privatized. Per Gulfnews, SriLankan is looking to launch direct flights Tehran, Amman and then planning to resume flights to Beirut. But not sure this news is old. Someone please confirm.

I don't know why on earth they wants to introduce Bombardier to its fleet. Most of the A320 are already flying in full load in short haul routes.




SriLankan's last A340 (4R-ADF) left Colombo today and flying towards Bournemouth. Hope to visit Bournemouth to take pictures soon.

Would prospective investors want any truck with SriLankan?

Minister of Public Enterprise Development, Kabir Hashim, said that financially no prospective investor would want to be part of SriLankan Airlines, which has been mismanaged and virtually run to the ground.

The incumbent Chairman did not inherit a viable organization, but one riddled with corruption, nepotism, and inefficiency. The national carrier was no longer an envious brand to be part of, he noted.

The minister was speaking as the chief guest at the graduation ceremony of the SriLankan Aviation College in Colombo last week.

"Years of misplaced priorities and wasteful expenditure continued to place a heavy burden on the economy of the country. An Airline had to project the image of the country. It was because of the industriousness of those who continued to serve SriLankan, the brand was able to hold its prestige in the skies", he said.

This mismanagement has to stop. The airline will be diverted towards profit orientation than be allowed to continue its dependence on government hand–outs, the minister stressed.

Air travel has increased across the world. More and more people travel on holiday world-wide. It’s a growing phenomenon. With such positive factors, SriLanka should also be able to attract people to travel and take advantage of reduced air fares due low oil prices, minister Hashim noted.

Most other international air carriers operated at a profit. There was no reason that SriLankan too could not be placed within such profit oriented organizations, he said.

There will be a time-frame for reorganization of the airline, and it would be turned around to make profits. State patronage would stop. It would then be that the airline would be on its own and contribute towards economy of the country, the minister said.

CPC will supply fuel until Sri Lankan is privatised

The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has been instructed to continue to provide fuel to the loss-making SriLankan Airlines despite the outstanding bills running to more than Rs 8,000 million, with the Treasury paying up the bills, officials said.

The decision was taken this week at a meeting attended by Petroleum Minister Chandima Weerakkody and officials of the Treasury, the CPC and SriLankan Airlines to discuss the repayment of outstanding debts.

Mr. Weerakkody said that in view of the decision the CPC had extended the credit period by a month. We cannot continuously take over the loss as it is turning out to be a burden on the CPC,” he said.

State Finance Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said that with the plans to privatize the management of the SriLankan Airlines which has incurred a loss of nearly Rs. one billion, the Treasury would be able to make the repayments to the CPC.

The CPC now pays up to Rs. 1,200 million to two state banks as loan instalments for fuel imports.

OK, it seems UL will cancel the A350s it ordered directly: