It says "negotiating"....... means trying hard. Its better news than "Mattala: Planes come, nobody gets in or gets out" story.

lol....thts true.......xP

It will be a brilliant coup if they could pull this off.

SL has to be creative in getting some "anchor tenants" in HRI. Once this is done, the rest will follow.

I'm calling Bullshit on this - Kapila should know better! The Airline is a huge drain on the Sri Lankan economy not a benefit ($200 million + in losses/year). The losses are so high that the banking system in Sri Lanka is in trouble (that has been reported in the local papers).

What you are more likely to see is a collapse of the banking system in Sri Lanka followed by a cascading collapse of the entire economy and the value of the Rupee imho. The current government has borrowed and borrowed and debt levels are completely unsustainable. They have no way to ever pay these debts back.

I'm calling Bullshit on this as well - TUI aren't stupid. They don't even have 6 weekly flights to Sri Lanka.

Air Asia X dropping Male as per Airlineroute.net announcement, so no more rotation via Male.



Srilankan BKK changes as well as a result of PEK / PVG direct flights.

It's showing the incorrect flight number for daily BKK terminator flight. It's supposed to be UL402/403. Btw UL has plans to increase JED service from 4 to 5 weekly effec S14. But UL is cancelling KUL-HRI, HRI-TRZ and MAA-HRI. Therefore starting from S14, UL will operate only MLE flights via HRI using A343.

Sri Lanka records highest ever aircraft, passenger traffic in 2013

COLOMBO, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- The year 2013 recorded a total of 52,194 aircraft movements in and out of Sri Lanka, showing a 7.1 percent increase compared to the previous year, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said in a statement on Thursday.

The CAA monitors all air services in Sri Lanka.

"This is the first time the number of aircraft movements has passed the mark of 50,000 in a year in the history of the country' s civil aviation," CAA Director General and CEO H.M.C. Nimalsiri said.

At the Bandaranaike International Airport, Sri Lanka's main portal to the world, the total number of commercial scheduled aircraft movements was 48,363 and unscheduled aircraft movements amounted to 2,661.

The Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport built with Chinese funding recorded 1,170 of international flights and 344 of domestic flights in 2013.

The total number of passenger moments in and out of Sri Lanka in 2013 was 7,328,798 with 3,621,822 passengers arriving and 3,690, 047 departing using the BIA.

The latest year's performance is a 3 percent growth compared to 2012's figure of 7,145,091.

In 2013, the Mattala airport handled 16,956 passengers with 14, 755 departing and 2,201 arriving.

In 2013, Sri Lanka handled air freight of 191,224 metric tons which was 9 percent increase compared to the previous year (174, 645). The 9 percent of overall growth comprises 11 percent increase in uplift and 8 percent increase in discharge of air freight.

What the??? They are the ones invited us last year... and confirmed...

i thnk only a confirmed date has not been approved yet........although that article does sound weird...........i assume its only a date which isn't confirmed ..............xP

http://www.ausbt.com.au/srilankan-ai...-join-oneworld

coz according to this article its just a date which isn't approved yet

Having these wide-body tag on flights between CMB and HRI is plain ridiculous. It's a good idea most of these are getting the chop. Who on earth wants to fly from CMB to MAA with a stop in the opposite direction, where most likely no one will get on/off the aircraft. I really would have thought that HRI would be an ideal alternative for the likes of Air Asia, Tiger Airways etc, but this doesn't seem to be the case. Let's hope that TUI deal can be pulled off.

Turkish Airlines aiming to maintain 60% LF on Istanbul-Colombo sector 7-Feb-2014 11:04 AM © CAPA

Turkish Airlines GM for Sri Lanka Ozgur Suucak, on the first anniversary of Istanbul-Colombo service, said the carrier is targeting to maintain 60% load factors on the route, "but we have been able to achieve over 80%" (Daily News, 07-Feb-2014). The carrier commenced operations four times weekly with a stopover in the Maldives, and increased frequency to daily amid strong load factors. 276-seat A330 aircraft is deployed on the route, according to OAG. Mr Suucak also noted: "We may also operate Colombo-Istanbul direct flights on some days".

Thanks ALA.. yeah... Thats what i thought....

I thought the same. But I'm very happy SriLankan is planning a tidy air-network starting from S14. It's good they are not going to do any PEK, PVG, KUL, MAA and TRZ flights via HRI. Their CMB-HRI-MLE-CMB and CMB-MLE-HRI-CMB makes some little sense which helps tourists in Maldives to spend time in tourism-spots closer to Hambantota by flying via HRI. I think UL need direct flights to Australia, Africa and more destinations in South Asia before they join Oneworld. I will post the UL Summer 2014 network soon.

Thanks ALA