@lordvader

Srilankan's Brand new A320's are all CFM engines.. as per planespotters.net



I spoke with a lot of A320 pilots who say that the CFM engines are the best on the A320 performance wise.. I hope they stick with em.. instead of the IAE engines... Look what happened to Kingfisher Airlines... They had 9 of their A320 fleet grounded for some time.. all IAE powered.

1 more A320-214 from Sahaab... then the 3 Brand new ones from Airbus comes online by end of 2011.

As per the A340 from Cathay... I dont know what they will do to the interior... maybe they can change.. who knows.. the A340 4R-ADE/ADF are going in for Refurbishment on the month of May.. Srilankan did not change the interiors from the Ex BMI A330.. which seats 18/236 whereas the rest of the A330 configurations are 12/275.

BTW can anybody enlighten me as to how many widebody A340/330 is Srilankan planning to induct? and also how many more A320's they are planning on after the 3 new ones from Airbus? Any A321's in the near future???? isnt their goal to be a 25 plane fleet by 2015?

Also other than the flatbed seating on Business class, are the aircrafts getting new economy class seats???

@Kflyer: pls..pls..pls.. next time u mention about UL launching Moscow pls say DME or SVO which are the proper identification for the 2 most popular Moscow airports.. It would look better instead of MOW... Just my opinion..

freqflyer

Planespotters isnt a reliable source, since anyone can enter details on their page. CAPA (Centre of Asia Pacific Aviation) states that the 3 new A320s are IAE engined and are owned by Air Lease Corp.



KFlyer, on his site states the same info. Check Banuthev's post above for info.

It will be interesting to see how they reconfig their existing A340 fleet and whether the first 3 (ADA-C) will be replaced anytime soon.

IAE is not that faulty. Not a bad choice. ABK is currently running at about 8/9h daily utilization - which is considerably low. I have no idea where can they profitably deploy three more unless they strategically plan and assign them to routes. ADG is an addition, not a replacement. If I knew which MOW was it, I would've told. But it has to be DME.

Interview with Nishantha Wickremasinghe, Chairman of SriLankan Airlines:


Interview with Manoj Gunawardena, CEO of SriLankan Airlines:


Judging from the above 2 articles..

I see more flights to Pakistan, India, and other regional destinations.. increase in frequencies and new additions..I foresee a daily ops into Karachi and more destinations in Pakistan.. More points in South India Madurai (there was a news paper article on a UL team in Madurai), Increase frequencies to Trichy, MAA, BLR.. I think the article stated that they wanted to increase flights into BOM and DEL... may see a relaunch into CJB, HYD and as per the article they say they can fly into more points into India and revisit some of the destinations they shut down.

3 new A320's- BAH,DOH,MCT should see increase in frequencies.

The above articles by the Chairman and CEO make me say this.

Do you guys think that the UL 316 CMB-SIN-KUL-CMB flight that departs CMB at midnight will be broken into CMB-SIN-CMB and CMB-KUL-CMB using the new A320 and see increase in frequencies to daily services??? This move if they do it can free up 1 wide body aircraft as well.. this could possibly mean that the afternoon TRZ flight can go double daily as Tamil Nadu citizens love going to Singapore and would not mind connecting via CMB both ways.

@lordvader- Thanks for the details... I will not use planespotters.net to quote from here on...

@kflyer- Ha Ha Ha.. i agree with you on that.. i think it should be DME as SVO is mostly Aeroflot ops...

are they refurbishing Economy class as well? Any possibilities of the A321??? my only questions that were not looked at...


Freqflyer

The second Srilankan Air Taxi twotter is in preparation at Calgary International Airport.



Photo courtesy of Wee in YYC....

Not even the first one is in operation ! Wasting money.

With Cricket WC around the corner just curious about how all the Cricket teams are hopping between cities and countries? Are they using regular scheduled flights or any charters being provided?

May be fans around CMB will see some new birds if there are charters. How is teams traveling to Kandy and Hambantota? via road or flying?

@ FreqFlyer - It appears to be MOW will be the next new destination after COK resumption. CAPA says UL is re-starting Australia flights in 2012.

@ CalgaryLankan - According to UL website, Luxury Coaches are in service between Kandy and Hambantota inorder to transport the Cricket Fans. I will find out if there is any international charters are operating for Cricket Worldcup.

@ Kflyer - Could you please tell us how is the pax-load on UL's CAN flights ?

Why C-FBBA has not been started its schedule service yet ? Is it because of its charter operation for Galle Literary Festival, Cricket World cup ... Any idea when C-GLKB would be leaving YYC ?

Thanks Banu ...

C-GLKB ferry flight is delayed until mid March - due to request from UL.

Air Arabia increases Colombo flights from 10 weekly to 12 weekly effective 20 February 2011. Meaning Colombo Service operates on One Daily in Early hours and Tu, We, Th, Fr, Su in the evening. Also G9's Colombo flight numbers are changing in Summer 2011 as G9503/4 and G9505/6.

Mihin Lanka's Dubai flights are up from 6 to 7 weekly and Kuwait flights are up from 4 to 5 weekly in 28 March 2011. Therefore Colombo to Kuwait flight (MJ403/4) will operate on days Mo, Tu, Th, Fr & Sa via DXB. On the remaining two days MJ401/2 will operate only as Colombo to Dubai to Colombo.

Mihin Lanka Online Booking is down due to the Maintanance.

more Summer 2011 update comes soon ...

With business booming for SriLankan from increased tourist and other arrivals to the country, aircraft manufacturers aggressively peddling their merchandise in Colombo and the frontrunner according to aviation insiders this time is America’s Boeing.

Ready for flights next year: Mattala int'l airport takes shape

After a gap of more than three years, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) resumed flights for Colombo, Sri Lanka, on February 19, 2011. PIA will operate thrice-a-week non-stop service between Karachi and Colombo on every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

The flight PK-874 on February 19 was operated with an Airbus A310-300

PTV News report about flight operated on February 19.



Abbas

Boeing may win SriLankan 777 order. Boeing is the front runner to win a new wide-body order from SriLankan Airlines, Sri Lanka’s The Nation reported Sunday.

This is fantastic news! To see a Boeing 777 aircraft would be something we can be proud of since it's a very popular and efficient aircraft.