Thanks to Jerome for the picture.

We did not got any official emails on this. I'll update you once we receive. I assume since they're going to return 2 A330-200 as mentioned above this will be good. Hoping to have herringbone business class seats rather than older 2-2-2 configuration.

Some engineers at the airport 2-3 days back told me about them getting another aircraft which they said would be due to arrive in a few days time (which it actually did).

Nope, still no company e-mails to employees, but they might give soon, hopefully after configuring the a/c into UL configs, and also after livery I guess. Yes, this aircraft will replace a 332, probably ALA I guess.

If I am not mistaken leases of ALA, ALB, ALC, ALH, MRD, MRE were extended by Suren Ratwette in Oct 2016 ?

Great news!!!. Or will this be short term?? Coz Hi Fly is known to lease a/c short term as wet lease... NZ had our EX UL A340 4R-ADE from HI FLY during 787 issues.

She still got her Belly "Visit Sri Lanka" but just Blue painting from last time.

Not sure where you guys get your info from....

This is simply a transit stop - the aircraft is heading to Makassar with aid supplies for the Tsunami victims.

CS-TFZ ferried from BRU to CMB as flight HFY431P on the 3-Oct and it hasn't flew anywhere since it landed at CMB. Flight number has P in it so I believe its going to be painted at CMB and I am sure Hifly didn't bother painting this aircraft for the second time. I was speaking to aircraft engineer and he confirmed its going to become 4R-ALS.

Yes - as I told earlier, aircraft will be becoming 4R-ALS. I will update you soon.

P stands for positioning flight. It may also be applicable to relief flights but I can't find anything about this.

With the damage in Makassar perhaps the airport is not yet suitable for A330 operations. I imagine the NAV aids are all out as well.

Company timetable is showing a round trip ending up in Brussels. That's normally correct.

I have heard a rumour the aircraft will be returned to SriLankan - that will be at a later date.

Here's something the useless Big Talking Chairman of the Board doesn't want you to know.

CS-TFZ is already leased to SriLankan as part of the compensation deal for the A350 cancellation. SriLankan has sub leased it to Hifly. SriLankan is not taking delivery - it's getting the aircraft back!

I doubt Hifly leases aircraft at the same rates as SriLankan - my guess would be SriLankan loses money every month on this arrangement paying for an aircraft they are not using.

I can see why they don't want this getting out.

Sri Lanka state airline to fly to Europe after finding partner: Tourism Minister

Oct 05, 2018 17:02 PM GMT+0530 | 0 Comment(s)


ECONOMYNEXT - State-run SriLankan Airlines plats to find a joint venture partner by end 2018 and will resume flight to Europe, Tourism Minister John Amaratunga said.

"Unfortunately, the national carrier has stopped flights to Europe," Tourism Development Minister John Amaratunga said at a forum organized by the University of Colombo.

"Before end of the year, the cabinet is determined to go ahead with a joint venture with a world leading airline and get back to European destinations."

He said SriLankan flights have no seats, especially when operating from China.

Amaratunga said that the cabinet wants to further increase the fleet of the airline.

It is also not clear why the airline would want to fly to Europe when there is excess demand in Asia.

SriLankan Airlines had scrapped all routes to Europe except London, in a bid to cut losses and make it easier to find a partner.

It is not clear whether any new partner will choose to fly to Europe, which is competitive, and increase the fleet on the orders of the Cabinet.

The government is likely to take off some of the debt of the airline prior to a sale.

The airline had lost 163 billion rupees from 2009 to 2016, after Emirates exited as managing shareholder, after ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa took personal offense at a Emirates management decision.

Under Emirates SriLankan Airlines operated with no help from tax payers.

An ongoing Presidential Commission is revealing gross mismanagement at the airline from 2006 to 2018.

SriLankan now has 13, A330 long haul aircraft and 14 A320/321 medium haul aircraft.

The airline cancelled a lease of four A350 long haul aircraft while incurring a penalty fee of 115 million dollars.

Mano Tittawella, consultant to the finance ministry said SriLankan had hired negotiators to convert remaining order of Airbus A350 aircraft into equipment more useful for its strategy. (Colombo/Oct/05/2018) economy next

Air China A330 Plane lands 3 hours late due to bad weather

Officials at the Bandaranaike International Airport said due to heavy rains an aircraft traveling from China to Sri Lanka landed three hours after the scheduled time.

The duty manager said the aircraft was later diverted to the Mattala Airport.

According to the staff at the BIA, the aircraft which was traveling from Chengdu in China had 166 passengers and 13 crew on board.

The duty manager further said, the aircraft which reached the Mattala Airport at 10.30 PM was once again routed to the BIA at 12.30 AM and reached there at 1.10 AM.

SriLankan Airlines is most punctual global airline in September 2018

Over 91% of flights on-time

SriLankan Airlines has achieved the remarkable feat of being named the world’s most punctual airline in the month of September 2018 in the key categories of ‘Global Airlines’ and ‘Major Airlines’, by the flight data analysis company Flightstats.com.

An extraordinary 91.37% of SriLankan Airlines’ flights in September 2018 were on time according to an analysis by Flightstats (www.flightstats.com).

Flightstats analyses data of airlines across every continent - Europe, North America, Asia, the Middle East, and South America – including most of the world’s largest and most prestigious airlines. Airlines are categorized among four categories – ‘Global Airlines’, ‘Major Airlines’, ‘Regional Airlines’ and ‘Low Cost Carriers’ – with some airlines appearing in more than one category.

In the ‘Global Airlines’ category, SriLankan’s punctuality was far ahead of the giant U.S. based carrier Delta Airlines that was in second place with 86.74% flights on time, while third place went to the Japanese airline ANA with 86.61% on time.

In the ‘Major Airlines’ category, SriLankan was easily ahead of India’s IndiGo that was in second place with 86.92% of flights being on time, and ANA which was third.

SriLankan’s exceptional performance came on the heels of the airline having launched its dynamic new ‘Ready to Fly!’ programme at the beginning of Sept 2018, to enhance its world-renowned customer service by providing increased punctuality levels of its flights around the world. The airline greatly appreciates the tremendous efforts of its staff to make this initiative a resounding success.

SriLankan’s consistently high level of on-time performance is the result of a structured process that monitors and co-ordinates the performance of all departments and individual staff members responsible for various aspects of its operations. The degree of attention given for punctuality monitoring is infallibly high with zero tolerance for slips in the process. This precision process of coordination involves many internal and external entities and it is noteworthy that this is carried out in a highly regulated industry where 100% compliance is expected for all statutory obligations.

A strict daily monitoring process examines every aspect of each flight and identifies shortcomings, with a measured process for immediate corrective measures and strict attribution of accountability. Root causes are examined, and delays attributed under concerned departments with remedial action, followed by weekly punctuality improvement meetings, and monitoring of follow up action and progress.

Maintaining a high level of on-time performance is all the more creditable due to the fact that a far greater proportion of delays are beyond the control of the airline. These are unforeseen events that are classified as ‘non-airline responsible’ such as air traffic control related issues at congested airports, adverse weather, constraints of insufficient infrastructure at airports in many parts of the world, industrial unrest at some airports, flight diversions due to medical emergencies, bird strikes on aircraft, and delays in offloading baggage a few minutes prior to scheduled departure times when passengers do not turn up at airport boarding gates after having checked in.

SriLankan Airlines places its highest priority on the complete safety of all its passengers, which means that all safety related matters are comprehensively attended to, no matter their impact on flight punctuality. For example, technical issues related to an aircraft are immediately attended to, ensuring 100% airworthiness of aircraft in keeping with the highest standards of safety.

Makassar flight is off the timetable - can't see any flights for CS-TFZ.

Possible that it has been returned to SriLankan.

Just got a second confirmation that aircraft is to be re-registered as 4R-ALS soon. It is still not yet in service.