According to attached email,resumption of Thai Airasia has been postponed.

@banuthev Tks for the update...
it is also noted that China Eastern KUNMING-COLOMBO-MALE is also stopped for last two weeks like

That's surprising. Any reason why China Eastern quiting Kunming-Colombo route?

Ashok Pathirage appointed Chairman of SriLankan Airlines
Monday December 16, 2019 12:31:54


ECONOMYNEXT- Top businessman Ashok Pathirage has been appointed chairman of the national carrier SriLankan Airlines, he said.

Pathirage told Economynext on Monday that he was officially appointed as chairman.

Newly appointed President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has said that he has set high bars for appointments to state-owned enterprises such as SriLankan through a committee, in order to turn them into profitable businesses.

Pathirage is the chairman and managing director of the Softlogic Group, which operates in Sri Lanka’s retail, healthcare, financial, technology, leisure and automobile industries.

Softlogic’s Asiri Hospitals is Sri Lanka’s largest private-owned hospital chain, and the retail business has the largest portfolio of foreign and local lifestyle brands.

SriLankan Airlines is in dire straits, posting a 41.7 billion rupee loss for the 2019 financial year, up from an 18.6 billion rupee loss a year earlier, with retained losses reaching 223.5 billion rupees.

The airline has won numerous awards for service standards, but rising competition from Middle Eastern and budget carriers, as well as past mismanagement had led to the airline’s losses.

A Presidential Commission had investigated the losses and poor management practices at the airline. (Colombo/Dec16/2019)

Source : Economy Next

SriLankan Airlines is adding 18 more new cities in Europe, North America, South America and the Middle East through the expansion of its codeshare agreement with Qatar Airways, bringing its global route network to 127 destinations in 56 countries.

Doha – Colombo

eff 29MAR20 Qatar Airways Increase from 4 to 5 daily, additional flight operated by A320

QR656 DOH0100 – 0845CMB 320 D
QR657 CMB0945 – 1235DOH 320 D

Even it is a good news in aviation field, it will not be a good news for srilankan airlines...because,that means they're going to be expand in srilanka too...they're traveling our national career's passengers...so,srilankan also should increase their weekly frequencies to doha...large number of europeans traveling to srilanka via doha. So,srilankan can operate another widebody aircraft to DOH additionally to the present night flight...it will be very good i guess..

i was wondering why Qatar was not getting its 5th flight in the beginning of the season.. usually they had started this somewhere Oct/Sep in the last few years.. i thought the load factor has come down.. and wonder why they are starting end of the season??? anyway good news as far SL aviation is concerned though..

Doha is becoming the next best aviation hub after Dubai.. so we cannot expect same result just by increasing UL flights to DOHA.. because QR planning their schedules based on most convenient and shorter connecting flights.. so UL cannot simply flight back by just adding more flights i guess...

one good for SL aviation may not be good for UL as always...

on the other hand.. any idea why EK is not increasing its frequency to CMB? i remember they had ask for permission to increase daily flights from 3 to 4 or 5 sometimes back? can anyone update on this as well pls

UL already have 11 flights per week to DOH.
EK flies to DXB 3 direct and 1 via Male already.

SriLankan Airlines & Gulf Air ink codeshare agreement
Author LBO
Posted on December 18, 2019 | Aviation
SriLankan Airlines & Gulf Air ink codeshare agreement

Dec 18, 2019 (LBO) – SriLankan Airlines and Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain have entered into a codeshare partnership significantly enhancing the travel options of their respective customers.

Under this agreement, SriLankan Airlines will place its ‘UL’ code on Gulf Air’s flights from Bahrain to Colombo, the Greek capital Athens and Larnaca in Cyprus. Gulf Air will, in turn, place its ‘GF’ code on SriLankan Airlines’ flights from Colombo to Bahrain.

“We are happy to sign with SriLankan Airlines and increase number of direct flights between the Kingdom of Bahrain and Sri Lanka,” Krešimir Kučko, Gulf Air’s Chief Executive Officer said.

“With our strong network in the Europe and North Africa, SriLankan Airlines can now offer more destinations to their passengers through our flights with one stop in our fast and efficient hub, Bahrain International Airport.”

The codeshare agreement followed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two airlines and is also intended to further strengthen the longstanding friendship between the two nations of Sri Lanka and Bahrain.

Source: Lanka Business Online

Srilankan operates extra flights to LHR year end to January

UL is flying few extra morning flights to London Heathrow between end of the year to early January.

SriLankan Airlines expands Malaysia Airlines codeshare from mid-Dec 2019
By Jim Liu

Posted20 December 2019 05:00

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SriLankan Airlines this month expanded codeshare partnership with Malaysia Airlines, covering additional service via Kuala Lumpur. Following codeshare routes went into effect since 16DEC19 (approximate, or earlier).

SriLankan Airlines operated by Malaysia Airlines
Kuala Lumpur – Hong Kong
Kuala Lumpur – Seoul Incheon

4R-ALJ is flying again.

Move to revive SriLankan Airlines takes off once again

Comments / 2300 Views / Saturday, 21 December 2019 01:30

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Minister Prasanna Ranatunga insistent that the company be brought back to its previous standard
New SriLankan Airlines Chief Pathirage has turnaround plan already
Minister orders to explore possibilities of providing more opportunities for local businessmen in tender procedure
SriLankan Airlines’ operational loss in FY18/19 was Rs. 116 b and total loss for the 10-year period 2009 – 2019 was Rs. 240 b; carrier was making progress in new financial year




By Charumini de Silva

The quest to revive the loss making national carrier SriLankan Airlines commenced week with Aviation Services Minister Prasanna Ranatunga directing officials to draft necessary proposals.

The Minister was insistent that the national carrier be brought back to its previous standard of excellence, by introducing best practices thereby transform it to be financially viable and a top-class airline in the region.

According to the Committee on Public Enterprises (CoPE) the operational losses of the Airline in FY19 amounted to Rs. 116 billion and the total loss for the 10 year period 2009 – 2019 was Rs. 240 billion though in the current financial year the national carrier has made progress to reduce losses.

The Minister earlier this week held a meeting with the newly-appointed SriLankan Airlines Chairman Ashok Pathirage and other key officials of Civil Aviation and Tourism.

The Minister directed the officials to identify the main reasons for the nosedive of the airline that incurred colossal losses and outline solutions and procedures that can be implemented immediately in the short- to medium-term, while the long-term proposals are being drafted simultaneously.

The meeting was convened to discuss the relevant plans and programs entrusted to the Tourism and Aviation Services Ministry under the National Policy Framework ‘Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour’ of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

SriLankan Chairman Ashok Pathirage said that he had already prepared a plan to turnaround the company financially as well as with a higher brand visibility to make the National Carrier one of the top airlines in this part of the world.

Ranatunga also instructed officials to explore possibilities of providing more opportunities for local businessmen to apply for tenders in SriLankan Airlines.

He pointed out that most of the tender procedures are made difficult for homegrown companies to apply for and as a result the airline had undergone problems relating to the quality of food served inflight several times.

Noting that developing local enterprises and industries was one of the main objectives outlined in President’s manifesto, he said it was important to locally source food items that are home grown instead of importing at a higher price.

The Minister reiterated that the Government policy was to improve national assets and add value to existing resources and not sell them to any foreign entity.

Ranatunga called on all stakeholders to work hard to turn local enterprises into profitable ventures.

The fresh attempt comes after in January 2019, the then President Maithripala Sirisena received a report of a 12-member Committee headed by former State Minister of Finance Eran Wickramaratne on the future of the national carrier.

The other members of the committee included former Dr. Harsha de Silva, Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, Dr. Dharmarathna Herath, Prof. D.B.P.H. Disa Bandara, V. Kanagasabhapathi, L.S.I. Jayaratne, Viraj Dayaratne, Mahen Gopallawa, Wasantha Kumarasiri, Ajith Amarasekara and Thisuri Wanniarachchi.

The report made recommendations on three sections – liquidation and reestablishment of the institution, the management agreement, and the debt restructuring and the capital generation. Under the restructuring of the State-owned institution, the Committee recommended focusing attention on identifying an independent board of directors and management, revision of project models, restructuring of human resources, providing an independent procurement process, and looking for cooperation in brand promotion.

SriLankan Airlines last month issued a statement noting that it had made significant progress in its efforts to become a sophisticated customer-centric airline intent on achieving financial success, by implementing a wide-ranging Turnaround Plan under the leadership of its Board of Directors with the unstinted support of its employees across all divisions.

It said financial performance for the six months ended 30 September 2019 showing an upward trend by reducing losses by more than 50%, with a loss of $ 19 m before interest and withholding tax against a loss of $ 39 m for the same period in the previous year.

After interest and withholding tax, the half yearly group loss was $ 76 m, a $ 10 m improvement over the $ 86 m loss in the previous year. This was achieved despite an overall decline in Group Revenue of $ 43 m, 70% of which was due to a drop in passenger and cargo revenue.

The decline in income was offset by the considerable reduction in operating expenditure amounting to $ 55 m due to the efforts of the staff of the entire organisation in cost saving initiatives to enhance productivity and reduce admin costs and wastage. Savings in the area of engineering and maintenance for the aircraft fleet have been significant, and a cost reduction of $ 8 m was realised in 2018/19, with a further $ 23 m earmarked for 2019/2020. There has also been a noteworthy improvement in fuel performance of the NEO aircraft fleet.

Ft.lk

4R-ALS after paint work