SriLankan Airlines to resume Mattala - China flights in 2017

SriLankan Airlines is planning to operate one way Mattala to China flights from 6th January 2017 until 25 March 2017. The SriLankan flights from Colombo to Beijing and Colombo to Shanghai are going to be temporarily operated via Mattala Airport. However the return flights from Beijing to Colombo and Shanghai to Colombo will be operating as nonstop.

The above decision has been taken due to closure of Colombo Airport runway for the resurfacing maintanance during the time 8:30am to 16:30pm every day in the period 5th January 2017 to 1st April 2017.

Presently Beijing and Shanghai flights are departing from Colombo at 13:00pm. But due to an upcoming runway maintanance at Colombo, SriLankan's flights can't depart at the normal time 13:00pm. Therefore SriLankan has changed the new departure timings for Beijing and Shanghai for period Jan to April 2017. As per new timing both the Beijing and Shanghai flights will be departing from Colombo at 07:25 and 07:35am and arrive in Mattala around 08:10am and the aircraft is to be parked in Mattala for 3 to 4 hours before its take off to Beijing and Shanghai. It's going to be inconvienient for China bound passengers. It would have been a better move if SriLankan flights depart from Colombo at 08:20am and arrive in Beijing and Shanghai at 17:30pm and the return flight depart from Beijing and Shanghai at 00:20am and arrive in Colombo normal time 05:45am. At least UL would have operated the Beijing and Shanghai via Bangkok instead of park the aircraft at Mattala for 3 to 4 hours.

New Flight Schedule for Bejing and Shanghai in Jan to April 2017.

CMB-HRI - 07:25 - 08:10 - UL1868 - MO.WE.FR.SA
HRI-PEK - 12:15 - 22:15 - UL1868 - MO.FR
HRI-PEK - 13:05 - 23:05 - UL1868 - WE.SA
PEK-CMB - 00:20 - 05:45 - UL869 - TU.TH.SA.SU

CMB-HRI - 07:35 - 08:20 - UL1866 - MO.WE.TH.FR
HRI-PVG - 12:25 - 21:40 - UL1866 - WE.FR
HRI-PVG - 13:15 - 22:30 - UL1866 - MO.TH
PVG-CMB - 00:20 - 05:45 - UL867 - TU.TH.FR.SA

Source : Air Sri Lanka Forum

Peace Air in US$ 5.5 B bid for SriLankan

• Sri Lanka's Peace Air has made the best bid worth US $5.5 billion to acquire SriLankan Airlines;

• The highlight of the acquisition is that the SriLankan brand name and the livery will remain and there will be no retrenchment of staff, but it will be expanded;

• Under the proposed route expansion programme, there will be five destinations each in Africa, China, Europe and Australia, ten in India and 6 in East Asia. Plans to resume SriLankan Airlines flights to Rome, Zurich and Frankfurt;

• There are also ambitious plans to fly to five Australian destinations – Canberra, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth, and another, which will be decided later and also five destinations in Africa;

• One of the key hallmarks of the deal is that Peace Air has also signed an Agreement with Lufthansa Consulting;

• They also stressed that they would be getting ready to cancel the lease agreements of the 21 existing aircraft, for which the national carrier was paying excessively, adding that there were four aircraft which were as old as 17 years. They also decried that the lease for a one-year-old aircraft was the same as the 17-year-old aircraft.

• We will be going for the best bid, whether it be Airbus or Boeing, they added.

• The most attractive part of the deal is that Peace Air has undertaken to bear the debts of both SriLankan, which stands at US$ 953 million and Mihin US$ 69 million. Peace Air has also expressed interest in getting a 70% share, 90% equity stake of Mihin and 100% equity stake in SriLankan Airlines Catering Services Ltd.

http://www.ceylontoday.lk/print20161...1.php?id=11327

There don't appear to be any serious candidates to run/take over UL.

The fact that no Airlines are interested says enough about the state of UL imho.

Then what are the choices UL has? Shut down the whole thing?

Not sure if this is posted here before;

Just saw this very clear ATC recording of UL 503 diverting to Bucharest (LROP) last month due to sick passenger.


or
http://www.liveatc.net/forums/atcavi...prev_next=next

Interesting.

Is there any site to listen to ATC recordings of the BIA tower ?

SriLankan's A321 / 4R-MRD is not flying since 12th Dec. Any reason ?

Some rumors.... She is going to get Air Ceylon livery.... Not 100% confirmed...

Exactly - $5.5 Billion is a huge amount of money. You could start a pretty big operation with this kind of money.

@Lukeskywalker - thanks for the links. Just confirms what i already knew.

There don't appear to be any serious candidates to run/take over UL.

The fact that no Airlines are interested says enough about the state of UL imho.

Seriously have the folks at UL been hit on the head with falling coconuts? So passengers are expected to spend 4-5 hours "in transit" at HRI before heading onto China?!
This is utterly ridiculous no matter which way you look at it.
If this airport was say, Changi or Dubai or Schipol, I can expect to fill a good 1-2 hours at the most, but expecting a plane load of 300 Chinese tourists heading home to fill up the terminal at HRI for 4-5 hours is waaay beyond a joke. It will take all over 5 minutes to get totally bored there.
Surely they can no negotiate an earlier arrival slot in China.

MRD isn't painted.. I saw it in Colombo day before.. It was parked on the parking bay next to the B727F (Lankan Cargo).. Took a picture, but will be able to post it in Jan only..

SriLankan Airlines which ditched Mattala airport on grounds that landing there and taking off was a huge uncalled expense was once again looking at the Hambantota airport.

This is because of the Colombo international airport runway closure during day time for repairs from next month.

The airline has been able to re schedule most of their international flights in other destinations and is flying at night and until before 8 a.m. However the airline has not being able to successfully negotiate with two Chinese destinations that the airline was flying to. The Chinese airports have not offered alternative timings slots for SriLankan to land.

This has resulted in SriLankan airlines forced to take off in the morning and land at Mattala and be grounded there for five hours before taking off to the Chinese destinations again incurring a heavy expense to the airline.

The Airport Authority of Sri Lanka (ASSL) has confirmed that the Colombo Bandaranaike International Airport will be closed for 8 hours from 8 am to 4.30 pm effective January 6 to April 6, 2017.

http://dailynews.lk/2016/12/21/business/102506

"That process will take place by January. If there is no satisfactory party recommended to us, it will end there," he said.

http://www.colombopage.com/archive_1...81897442CH.php