Reuters has reported that SriLankan Airlines has signed a provisional deal Airbus worth USD$1.3 billion on the 17-May 2013, to buy six A330-300 and four A350-900 aircraft for delivery between 2014 and 2023. Chandrasena said the national carrier needs to replace all six A340-300s with A330-300 aircraft and all seven A330-200s with A350-900s.

The A340 has lost favour with airlines due to the cost of running four engines in an era of high fuel prices. Airlines are switching to lightweight new-technology planes such as the Airbus A350, but sales of the older A330 have held up better than expected due to its availability and competitive pricing, aerospace analysts say. "We don't have cash," Chandrasena said. "So what we are doing is a sale and lease." "We are talking to various (leasing companies) right now about the sale and lease-back on the six A330-300s," he said. (reuters)

all seven A330-300s with A350-900s. this should be All 7 A330-200s?

Typing Error! Yes all seven A330-200s are going to be replaced by A350-900s. Hope sale and lease-back deal confirmed soon! Looking forward to see the announcement on the Airbus Website. Have corrected the error above.

AirCeylon, Do you have any update about the SriLankan's Airbus order!

Sri Lankan Airlines to buy 10 Airbus planes for $1.3 Billion

Sri Lankan Airlines has signed a provisional deal with Airbus worth $1.3 billion to buy six A330-300 and four A350-900 aircraft to replace ageing aircraft, firm’s CEO told Reuters.



The airline, seeking to modernise its fleet to cut fuel costs, will opt for Rolls-Royce engines and use a lease-back arrangement to conserve cash, chief executive Officer Kapila Chandrasena said in an interview.

“The total cost altogether is going to be around $1.3bn. But deliveries are progressively from 2014 to 2020 on a staggered basis,” he said. The carrier signed a memorandum of understanding on the purchase with Airbus last Friday, he said.

Sri Lankan Airlines now operates with a 22-aircraft fleet including seven A320-200s, seven A330-300s, six A340-300s.

Chandrasena said the national carrier needs to replace all six A340-300s with A330-300 aircraft and all seven A330-200s with A350-900s.

He said the airline would work with either a financial institution or a leasing firm that would buy the aircraft and lease them back to the carrier.

He said the national carrier would be looking at a lease period of 10 to 15 years, with a shorter period for the A330-300s and a longer period for the A350-900s.

“We are talking to various (leasing companies) right now about the sale and lease-back on the six 330-300s,” he said.

http://www.gulf-times.com/business/191/details/353802/sri-lankan-airlines-to-buy-10-airbus-planes-for-$13bn

Delivery expected between 2014 & 2020.

2023 – Maybe Typing Error!

I thought they would get 7 A359s. UL got 8 A320 not 7.

Yes, there are a lot of typos in these articles. Aviation press should be more accurate and pay attention to what they report.

As for the discrepancy on the number of A359s, I thought UL managed to get 4 slots directly with Airbus and will be leasing the remaining three from a leasing company who have already bought the slots for earlier deliveries and are now looking to place them with prospective customer airlines.

On a different note, UL appears to think that the current capacity and composition thereof will remain ideal for their operations for the foreseeable future.

All they are doing is swapping older fuel un-economical airliners with newer fuel efficient planes of the same size (and range, more or less); 6 A343s replaced with 6 A333s and 7 A332s replaced with 7 A359s.

Typically when an airline revamps its entire fleet (the entire wide body fleet in this case) they tend to spend more efforts in capacity planning for the future and adjust the composition of the new aircraft purchase to suit their anticipated needs.

I am wondering if UL has done this exercise, found out that the current composition to be ideal going forward, hence ordering 1 to 1 replacements or they have not done this analysis at all.

UL got – 7 A330-200

Regarding A350-900

4 - A350-900 by Airbus.

3 - A350-900 by leasing firm.

By 2020 – All A330-200 will be replaced by A350-900.

First A350 XWB “MSN001”

Airbus confirms UL A350-900 order!

A350-900 - Customers-Operators List

Srilankan Airlines

Link - http://www.airbus.com/tools/customers-operators-list/

[B]Click Letter S - Letter tab & Check the name.

Im pretty sure thats just an Airbus Customer list for airlines that operate any type of Airbus aircraft. Dont think theyve confirmed the order.

If u click M - u will find Mihin Lanka..........................these are not list of orders..........these are the list of currents users of all airbus aircraft

Kapila told reuters on 17-May that SriLankan Airlines doesn't have cash so they are planning for a sale and lease-back six of the Airbus A330-300s. I think SriLankan Airlines should lease only brand-new six of A330-300s to replace six of A343s. A359s can be ordered five or ten years after. I doubt SriLankan Airlines is afford to do single-order of Ten widebodies. Airbus Aircraft List Prices for 2013.

According to Amadeus, SriLankan Airlines resumes direct flights to Kozhikode soon. Starting Date not yet confirmed but it seems Amadeus shows starting date as 24-MAY-2013 but Reservation not yet opened. Good to hear SriLankan Airlines once a again boosting the capacity to India. Once SriLankan Airlines was the international airline which provided highest frequency of flights to India before they cut down the flights to India due to losses. SriLankan Airlines, prospective member in Oneworld should increase the more flights to India I think. Hope we will see Coimbatore, Shamashabad, Goa etc.. in the pipeline.

Flight Schedule

CMB - CCJ - 11:30 - 12:50 - UL169 - A320 - MO.TU.TH.FR.SA.SU
CMB - CCJ - 13:50 - 15:10 - UL169 - A320 - WE

CCJ - CMB - 13:40 - 15:00 - UL170 - A320 - MO.TU.TH.FR.SA.SU
CCJ - CMB - 16:00 - 17:20 - UL170 - A320 - WE