The first flight of 4R-ANA


4R-ANA at Hamburg - Fuhlsbuettel
by Lars Hentschel on netAirspace.com

I think you seem adamant that you need to travel to CMB from your city:
1. On UL (at least partly)
2. Avoid LHR and transit in continental Europe

Your desire to promote CDG and FRA as UL destinations stem from the above, despite the overwhelming evidence (as even stated by UL) that those two destinations were hemorrhaging.

If your requirement is to travel from your city to CMB it is obvious that there are so many options.

To answer the question above: No, I have not tried. Ever since the UL management came back to GoSL, I have flown with UL only twice.

My handful of trips to Canada have always been via land.


Didn't mean to be-little your city and I have not confused it with Canberra BTW.

Didn't know Canada had a Silicon Valley These days everyone has one, so why not Canada!

It means A330 300 with PIA will be back soon , Srilankan can now take out old A330 200's from service and keep seven new A330 300's in fleet

My requirement for CMB is very minimal. I usually travel (to CMB) once a year or less & I have no loyalty or whats or ever to UL. My loyalty is to Star Alliance...most North America passengers are loyal to Star Alliance (UA/AC) or Sky Team (DL)...AA is not popular.

If I want to fly to LHR I will use AC from YOW or YUL (YUL is only 2 hours drive from Ottawa). But I do track Air transport industry and how the market grow and change

If you check the transit time (CMB) from YUL or YYZ it is over 10hours (10 - 20 hours) in LHR...no sane passengers are going to take it

Even though I despise tin pot dictator MR...the only correct decision they did was buying A359 but not definitely at that lease rate (that is MR corruption).

For traditional airlines future is in the long haul and ultra long haul; aircraft manufactures have seen that that is the reason they are promoting B787/77X/A35X...not in short haul or regional...Short haul and regional market is going to be taken up by no frills...short haul and regional margins are very low...I am not sure how UL is going to survive in this market.

Only way a Sri Lankan Airline (public or private) can survive is

CMB to be privatize
de monopolize the Jet A1 buisness
if it full service...then move into long haul
if it no frill...shorth haul or regional

Sri Lankan socialist model of government companies cannot survive on today's ever shrinking global village most passengers are loyal to their wallets not to the "nationalistic" airlines anymore


Visiting Niagara or Toronto does not means that you have visited Canada... Real Canada is outside southern Ontario

Yes in Ottawa we have lots of South Asians (TFW Visa) working in our tech sector...so they mostly commute to BLR



YOW handles over 4.6million Pax for a city of 1.35 million and is part of the AC rapid air shuttle service

The lease with PIA was supposed to change to a dry lease and it was supposed to be for multiple aircraft. None of that has happened and now UL is stuck with aircraft they don't need that are leased at rates that are so high they cannot make money operating them.

And that's a success?

This is just another example of how everything these appointed "managers" touch turns to sh*t!

True. When I fly domestic in USA I hardly care who I fly with because they all have rudimentary service standards. My only two exceptions are:

1. Avoid Allegiant and Spirit (for safety reasons)
2. Try to fly with jetBlue for transcon because Mint is very good and if you plan ahead the price is only marginally higher compared to last minute tickets.

Agree, but where will UL fly ULH? There is no demand to fill up a wide body to North America with VFR traffic and operating one or two flights a week is not going to cut it. LHR is the only viable destination where there is sufficient demand.

UL has a very low cost base thanks to the cheap LKR, they should leverage that advantage to compete with LCCs. (Granted, some larger expenses like lease payments and fuel are priced in USD, but all the salaries and other expenses in SL are LKR denominated.)

Ha ha...that was an easy guess given that vast majority use the Rainbow Bridge crossing. Actually I have used the Detroit crossing a couple of times as well (Still Ontario though)

UL cost base is very high...salaries are very high...each air hostess makes average in between SLR 450,000 - 600,000pm (please dont get confused with base salary take home is much more)...There are 13 managers in LHR including one ex CEO (Who does absolutely nothing)

UL board/management/employees cannot find their way out of wet paper bag...and they expect poor tax payers to bail them out every time

UL cannot operate anything with current operating model...it just simply does not work

Lets assume for a ideal operating model for a airline operating out of CMB
like...
non unionised and competitive landing cost
A reasonable passenger levy
fair market value for Jet A1
A reasonable head count within the airline

in a situation like this UL can operate non stop to Stockholm/Copenhagen/AMS/CDG/FRA/Milan/Zurich and of course LHR
UL can also operate to North America like JFK/LAX and YYZ...to be break even in North America...aircraft needs just 60% load factor (which is clearly achievable)...Air Cargo alone from CMB will be just enough to bring higher yield.

Thats how Long haul and ULH benefits an airline from Sri Lanka...and I forgot to mention Other Asian routes like NRT/MEL and China

UL should also move out of old mentality like sending staff overseas and opening up overseas offices...They should have virtual offices and operate via CMB

Now thats a ideal situation...which will never ever happens in the pearl of the indian ocean

Finally...I will use Allegiant...when I take my family to Orlando...which I forgot to mention (My first loyalty is for my wallet)...if it is business then AC or UA...I fly Allegiant from Ogdensburg, NY....Ottawa's other airport...then I will donate the rest of the money to Disney

Are you sure of this figure? The upper limit of this salary scale is comparable with what some people with Western PhDs and decades of professional experience earn in SL.

I though the cabin crew were taking home around LKR 100-150K or so per month.

Well this is from the horses mouth...I may live in Canada...but I am fairly connected to upper echelon of UL & GOSL. As I told you...forget about the salary scale...it is others like OT; flight delay; per diem etc...this is one of the reason that they were losing money on the long haul.

Thanks!

That is outrageously high for a low skilled job in SL. No wonder UL is constantly in red.

I knew that the UL flight crew were on a scale comparable to international salaries. That is justifiable, given the extremely high portability of their skills, but the cabin crew!

Thats the reason when UL management introduced that for most of the flight (ME like BAH) crew has to return on the same flight...cabin crew was so upset...so now they try to delay or come up with some excuse for a overnight stay in the destination

the whole company is a mess...as ejonson65 said everyone is there to a make money

4R-ALN has been ferried from LHE to KHI for end of lease checks. Its soon to be painted back in SriLankan livery.