Sri Lanka and Vietnam is to begin talks on relaxing visa rule and establish direct air links, following a meeting with Prime Minister of the two countries in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc had discussed the possibility of starting direct flights and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe had has said all facilities would be provided for the move.

"Talks on relaxing visas to promote tourism will begin soon," a statement from the Prime Minitser's office said.

Source- EconomyNext

Which airline would fly direct flights between Sri Lanka and Vietnam ? SriLankan Airlines or Vietnam Airlines?

At least he’s treated to Cashew Nuts and that too on a ticket funded by us tax payers!

However when we fly UL ( and pocket the fare from our hard earned money) we get a Cold Bun and a Juice Box in return

My3 should consider himself lucky

Sri Lankan airlines, not fit for humans, there seat cushion is completely worn to the bottom so people are seated on hard surface, horrible food, horrible service, parts falling apart, dirty cabin. Outdated entertainment system, worst airline in the world.

Hopefully Vietnam Airlines will serve CMB with their A321CEO's

SriLankan is currently operating 17 weekly to BKK (7 weekly departing CMB around 1am, 3 weekly departing CMB around 7am and 7 weekly departing CMB around 1pm). What do you think UL is planning to operate 7am BKK flight like CMB-BKK-HAN ? I think UL is loosing the middle-east passengers on CMB-BKK route since EK & QR are increasing more & more flights to BKK.

I don't agree on this.
UL does have its flaws, but then again they definitely cannot be the worst airline in the world
In terms of Customer Service on the Ground and in the Air, they rank far better than most and also in terms of catering on Long and Medium haul which are actually good

Take AirIndia for example, they are undoubtedly much worse than UL in terms of ecerything!

I've said this before and ill say it again.....The Problem with UL is that they do not take much interest in their Short-haul routes even though they look to become a leading "regional airline"

As a SriLankan, even though I too have seen and experienced the decline of UL in terms of their overall product and service mainly since they have been debt-stricken from as long as i remember , However I still feel that they are an airline worth flying on... Its probably patriotism or simply because I'd like the fact that i still see them as airline with great potential

You are 100% right by the fact that they are losing out on the ME market.
However I feel that a direct Thrice weekly flight would be the best option for UL at this point

UL having a good load factor on the BKK flight. However the yield is the biggest issue. Increasing the yield in all the destinations is the next immediate target for the year 2019.

As far as I know. TG is downgrading from B777 to A330 on certain days but they keep the daily on CMB sector. Increased visa price for Thailand and Malaysia maybe one of the reason. I'm not sure.

‘Island Escapes’, a marketing campaign to promote Sri Lanka as a year-round destination to boost arrivals during off season will be launched later this week, the Tourism Minister said

Source- Lanka business online

Do not agree with you at all. It seems that you have flown only in Srilankan Airlines

IOM, the UN Migration Agency, is today conducting a two-day training of trainers for SriLankan Airlines aircrew on identifying and reporting trafficking in persons on board flights

This is going on already at the Airline - it's clearly an organised Racket. Obviously powerful people are involved and Senior Management is looking the other way. It's the only explanation that accounts for the lack of action by HHR.

Complete waste of time imho - time and money could be better spent investigating and prosecuting those involved in human trafficking.

Treasury to absorb SriLankan Airlines liabilities

The government decided to create a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) under Treasury to absorb the total liabilities of SriLankan Airlines after writing them off its balance sheets, a Minister said yesterday.

Public Enterprises Development Minister Lakshman Kiriella told Daily Mirror it was a pre-requisite to strike an equity sharing arrangement with an investor to develop the national career. He said the national career should start with a clean balance sheet with no debt burden.

“We had talks with the Finance Ministry a couple of weeks ago and decided to create the Special Purpose Vehicle. It is an entity to transfer the liabilities of the national career,” he said.

The Minister said a lot of investors including foreign airlines had shown interest in investing in Sri Lanka’s national career, but outstanding debt volume, accumulated over a period, had been deterrence.

He said the airlines from the countries such as Japan, China and Germany were keen to partner with Sri Lankan Airlines under an equity sharing arrangement.

“We are contacted by a lot of investors. There are several airlines from China alone. But, the liabilities are a problem,” he said.

Earlier, the Cabinet had granted approval for the government to absorb the total liabilities of the national career amounting to Rs.461 billion. (Kelum Bandara)

Daily Mirror

Most probably a Chinese airline if something does come about, no one else would dare to get involved with so much interference. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise for UL as well as local Gov interference will be much less with Chinese involvement.