Traffic rights granted by Indian Civil Aviation Ministry:

* Air India Express for Chennai to Colombo 4x weekly eff Winter '12.

* Air India Express for Tiruchirappalli to Colombo 4x weekly eff Summer '13 and additional 3x weekly eff Winter '13.

* Spicejet for Tiruchirappalli to Colombo 7x weekly eff Winter '12 using a Q400 Turboprop.

Source : The reply from Indian Civil Aviation Ministry to my RTI application.

Cheers!!!

Looks like the A320 aircraft of Mihin is only used for Madurai service.

What is its capacity?

Y180.

Badnews for UL Have they got approval from Sri Lanka authories?

4R-MRB status still showing "Stored" in planespotters.net.

Sri Lanka has to approve only the Bilateral realization of seats and the slot of operation @ CMB airport.

Indian carriers will get it sooner or they might have already got the necessary approvals.

SriLankan Airlines - Summer 2013 Network Update as per 25-Dec-2012 Display

According to Amadeus Display of 25th Dec 2012, SriLankan Airlines is planning the Summer 2013 network as below with a current aircraft fleet strength of 8 = A320, 7 = A330 & 6 = A340. It looks like total number of 264 UL flights operated in Winter 2012 have been reduced to 256 flights in Summer 2013 effec 31st March 2013.

* Increasing Muscat flights from four to five weekly;
* Downgrading Frankfurt flights from five to four weekly;
* Downgrading Riyadh flights from five to two weekly;
* Downgrading London flights from Ten/Twelve weekly to seven weekly;
* No signs of new destination yet, however there must be few more changes expected to be made in February 2013;

The following flights to be remain the same as Winter 2012;

* Three weekly flights to Hong Kong via BKK, Jeddah and Rome;
* Four weekly flights to Tokyo, Guangzhou via BKK, Dammam and Paris;
* Five weekly flights to Beijing via BKK and Shanghai via BKK;
* Single Daily flights to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Karachi, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Kuwait;
* Overall Dubai flights will be operated with 9 flights, which also includes CMB-DXB-DME two weekly onboard A320;
* Double Daily flights to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Trichy, Kochi and Trivandrum;
* Overall Bangkok service will be operated with 17 flights;
* 28 flights to Chennai and the Male' gets 40 flights;

Turkish Airlines - Colombo Start on 15.2.2013

Turkey to open Sri Lanka Embassy in February 2013

Turkey will be opening a fully fledged embassy in Colombo in February next year. They have already designated an Ambassador to Sri Lanka. On Monday this week, the Turkish Ambassador Designate to Sri Lanka Iskender Okyay paid an official visit to the Sri Lanka Embassy in Ankara and had formal discussions with Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Turkey Bharathi Wijeratne.

That is a good news... TK has worldwide connections via IST. There will be a commercial big boost in srilankan aviation ...

@ 4R-SRD - If TK flights are commencing to Colombo on 15-Feb-2013, they must have been opened the reservation already at least first week of December 2012. I believe you have access to GDS could you please check if you can see when exactly TK starting flights to Colombo ? Any sign of the Flight Timetable ? What aircraft they are going to use ?

Unfortunately no schedule uploaded in GDS. But fortunatley we have a good sign because they have uploaded fares to and from CMB. It will take some days to upload flights into GDS. Keep u updated.

Sabre still shows no direct TK flights, IST -> CMB,


TK RESPONSE
13TK 68 C4 D4 J0 I0 R0 Y4 ISTBKK 0050 1450 340 0
B4 M4 K4 H4 S0 E0 Q0 T0 L0 V0 P0 W0 G0 X0 N0
14UL 889 J0 C0 Z0 Y0 P0 W0 CMB 2005 2200 343 0
M0 B0 H0 K0
15TK 716 C4 D4 J2 I0 R0 Y4 ISTDEL 1945 0455¥1 333 0
B4 M4 K4 H4 S4 E4 Q4 T0 L0 V0 P0 W0 G0 X0 N0
16AI 6046 Y0 Q0 V0 CMB ¥1 1850 2225 320 0
17TK 716 C4 D4 J2 I0 R0 Y4 ISTDEL 1945 0455¥1 333 0
B4 M4 K4 H4 S4 E4 Q4 T0 L0 V0 P0 W0 G0 X0 N0
18UL 2996 Y0 P0 W0 M0 B0 H0 CMB ¥1 1125 1500 321 0
K0 A0 O0 E0
19TK 720 C4 D4 J4 I0 R0 Y4 ISTBOM 1935 0515¥1 333 0
B4 M4 K4 H4 S4 E4 Q4 T4 L4 V0 P0 W0 G0 X0 N0
20UL 142 J0 C0 Z0 Y0 P0 W0 CMB ¥2 0305 0530 320 0
M0 B0 H0 K0
21TK 762 C4 D4 J4 I0 R0 Y4 ISTDXB 0035 0705 33Q 0
B4 M4 K4 H4 S4 E4 Q4 T1 L0 V0 P0 W0 G0 X0 N0
22EK 652 F0 A0 J0 C0 I0 O0 CMB 0935 1820 772 1
Y0 E0 R0 W0
23TK 760 C4 D4 J0 I0 R0 Y4 ISTDXB 2005 0235¥1 33Q 0
B4 M4 K4 H4 S4 E4 Q4 T0 L0 V0 P0 W0 G0 X0 N0
24EK 348 J0 C0 I0 O0 Y0 E0 CMB ¥1 0745 1330 77W 0
R0 W0 M0 B0
25TK 8050 C4 D4 J4 Y4 B4 M4 ISTAUH 1405 2025 320 0
K4 H4 S0 E0 Q0 T0 L0 V0 P0 W0 G0
26EY 266 J0 C0 D0 W0 CMB 2140 0335¥1 320 0

S01MARISTCBM¥Tk«

01MAR FRI IST/Z¥2 CBM/-2
NONE SKED TK

Yes. No TK skd uploaded in GDS. Waiting curiously to see this connection... they have already uploaded fares.

As far as I am aware IX is flying on MAA-CMB already before Winter 2012. But your post says IX just got granted for traffic rights on MAA-CMB. Could you please explain? Sorry If I mis-read your post.

Any idea of the Flight Schedule for the IX and SG flights that going to operate on TRZ - CMB ? Thanks.

Many such approvals have been given. We don't know if they are going to be additional approvals but it is more likely to be such.

Flights are still in early stages, but new schedule for MAA - TRZ looks to have some connection with CMB from TRZ. Lets wait to know.

TK is inclusion to colombo might get effected to RJ pax.

Sri Lankan Airlines to commence flghts to Bhubaneswar, the capital of the Indian state of Orissa

International flights should start operation by March 2013, Biju Patnaik airport director Sharad Kumar told TOI on Monday. The airport is planning to commission the state-of-the-art new domestic terminal in January. Thereafter the airport authorities will modify interiors of the old terminal to convert it into international terminal. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) will create space for security check, excise and customs clearance, besides duty free shops. Sri Lankan Airlines, Thai Airways and Gulf Air are likely to operate flights from Bhubaneswar to Colombo, Bangkok and Dubai



I don't know how accurate this article is, but I'm sure a lot of people will find this hard to believe.