Sri Lanka Aviation

MH A333 and not A339?

transponder was ON yesterday.

SriLankan Airlines Fleet & Network Sep 2018 vs Jul 2025

DESTINATION	Sep-18	Jul-25	VARIATION	SECTOR
AUH	7	7	0	MIDDLE EAST
BAH	7	0	-7	MIDDLE EAST
BKK	21	14	-7	FAR EAST / ORIENT
BLR	14	10	-4	SOUTH ASIA
BOM	14	14	0	SOUTH ASIA
CAN	7	4	-3	FAR EAST / ORIENT
CCU	4	0	-4	SOUTH ASIA
CDG	0	3	3	EUROPE
CGK	7	7	0	FAR EAST / ORIENT
CJB	5	0	-5	SOUTH ASIA
COK	13	7	-6	SOUTH ASIA
DAC	7	7	0	SOUTH ASIA
DEL	14	14	0	SOUTH ASIA
DMM	5	7	2	MIDDLE EAST
DOH	12	7	-5	MIDDLE EAST
DXB	11	11	0	MIDDLE EAST
FRA	0	4	4	EUROPE
GAN	4	3	-1	SOUTH ASIA
GAY	1	0	-1	SOUTH ASIA
HKG	5	0	-5	FAR EAST / ORIENT
HYD	7	4	-3	SOUTH ASIA
ICN	0	2	2	FAR EAST / ORIENT
IXM	7	6	-1	SOUTH ASIA
JED	7	0	-7	MIDDLE EAST
KHI	7	4	-3	SOUTH ASIA
KTM	0	4	4	SOUTH ASIA
KUL	14	14	0	FAR EAST / ORIENT
KWI	7	7	0	MIDDLE EAST
LHE	5	4	-1	SOUTH ASIA
LHR	7	7	0	EUROPE
MAA	33	21	-12	SOUTH ASIA
MCT	7	0	-7	MIDDLE EAST
MEL	7	7	0	OCEANIA
MLE	24	21	-3	SOUTH ASIA
NRT	4	4	0	FAR EAST / ORIENT
PEK	4	0	-4	FAR EAST / ORIENT
PVG	5	0	-5	FAR EAST / ORIENT
RUH	7	7	0	MIDDLE EAST
SEZ	3	0	-3	AFRICA
SIN	21	14	-7	FAR EAST / ORIENT
SYD	0	4	4	OCEANIA
TRV	7	4	-3	SOUTH ASIA
TRZ	14	8	-6	SOUTH ASIA
VTZ	5	0	-5	SOUTH ASIA
TOTAL FREQUENCY OF FLIGHTS	360	261	-99
BREAK DOWN OF FREQ OF FLIGHTS
AFRICA	3	0	-3
EUROPE	7	14	7
FAR EAST / ORIENT	88	59	-29
MIDDLE EAST	70	46	-24
OCEANIA	7	11	4
SOUTH ASIA	185	132	-53
ACTIVE FLEET TOTAL	27	21	-6
BREAK DOWN :
A320-200	5	6	1
A321-200	3	0	-3
A320-NEO	2	2	0
A321-NEO	4	3	-1
A330-200	6	3	-3
A330-300	7	7	0
GROUNDED FLEET TOTAL	0	1	1
BREAKDOWN :
A321-NEO	0	1	1
FLEET ON MAINT TOTAL	0	1	1
BREAKDOWN :
A320-200	0	1	1

​

Any cabin refurbishment done for MRE during maintenance?

Supposed to do UL123 and 124 today. As of now 135 minutes delay.

Is MRE going to return to revenue service for UL from tomorrow?

Colombo Airport Schedule Flight Information - August 2025

• JetstarAsia terminated all flights from 31 July 2025;
• FitsAir is increasing CMB-DAC flights from 5 to Daily from 12-Aug-2025;
• FitsAir is increasing CMB-DXB flights from Daily to 9 weekly in August 2025 for peak season;
• FitsAir is decreasing CMB-KUL flights from 4 weekly to 2 weekly in August 2025;
• AirAsia is increasing CMB-KUL flights from 11 weekly to 13 weekly in August 2025;
• Jazeera Airways is increasing CMB-KWI flights from 10 weekly to 13 weekly in August 2025 for peak season;
• Malaysia Airlines debuting A333 service on CMB-KUL flights in August 2025. Overall MH flights will be operated as 4 weekly B737 and 3 weekly A333;
• Turkish Airlines is increasing IST-CMB flights from 8 weekly to 9 weekly in Aug 2025;
• SriLankan is reducing CMB-FRA flights from 4 weekly to 3 weekly in Aug 2025;
• SriLankan is reducing CMB-GAN flights from 3 weekly to 2 weekly in Aug 2025;
• FitsAir is listing two new destinations in the booking site. Ras al khaimah and Sharjah. Please find the attached. Can anyone confirm?

A/L	DEST	VIA	FLTS PER WEEK IN JUL 2025	FLTS PER WEEK IN AUG 2025	FREQ VARIATION
3K	SIN	---	5	0	-5
3L	AUH	---	5	5	0
6E	BLR	---	14	14	0
6E	BOM	---	7	7	0
6E	HYD	---	6	6	0
6E	MAA	---	21	21	0
8D	DAC	---	5	7	2
8D	DXB	---	7	9	2
8D	KUL	---	4	2	-2
8D	MLE	---	9	9	0
AI	BOM	---	7	7	0
AI	DEL	---	14	14	0
AI	MAA	---	7	7	0
AK	KUL	---	11	13	2
CA	TFU	---	4	4	0
CX	HKG	---	5	5	0
EK	DXB	---	21	21	0
EK	DXB	MLE	7	7	0
EY	AUH	---	27	27	0
FD	DMK	---	7	7	0
FZ	DXB	---	21	21	0
FZ	DXB	MLE	7	7	0
G9	SHJ	---	18	18	0
GF	BAH	MLE	7	7	0
HM	SEZ	---	2	2	0
J9	KWI	---	10	13	3
MH	KUL	---	7	2	-5
MU	KMG	---	4	4	0
MU	PVG	---	7	7	0
OQ	CKG	---	3	3	0
OQ	MLE	---	3	3	0
OV	MCT	---	5	5	0
QR	DOH	---	35	35	0
SQ	SIN	---	7	7	0
SU	SVO	---	0	0	0
TG	BKK	---	7	7	0
TK	IST	---	8	9	1
UL	AUH	---	7	7	0
UL	BKK	---	14	14	0
UL	BLR	---	10	10	0
UL	BOM	---	14	14	0
UL	CAN	---	4	4	0
UL	CDG	---	3	3	0
UL	CGK	---	7	7	0
UL	COK	---	7	7	0
UL	DAC	---	7	7	0
UL	DEL	---	14	14	0
UL	DMM	---	7	7	0
UL	DOH	---	7	7	0
UL	DXB	---	11	11	0
UL	FRA	---	4	3	-1
UL	GAN	---	3	2	-1
UL	HYD	---	4	4	0
UL	ICN	---	2	2	0
UL	IXM	---	6	6	0
UL	KHI	---	4	4	0
UL	KTM	---	4	4	0
UL	KUL	---	14	14	0
UL	KWI	---	7	7	0
UL	LHE	---	4	4	0
UL	LHR	---	7	7	0
UL	MAA	---	21	21	0
UL	MEL	---	7	7	0
UL	MLE	---	21	21	0
UL	NRT	---	4	4	0
UL	RUH	---	7	7	0
UL	SIN	---	14	14	0
UL	SYD	---	4	4	0
UL	TRV	---	4	4	0
UL	TRZ	---	8	8	0

​

I suspect it may be due to aircraft availability and maybe crew shortage as well. A thrice weekly PEK means two or three night turnaround so will take a crew out for 3-4 days.

UL need more long haul air crafts to run these extra routes and won.t be possible for few more years ahead.
CMB-YYZ direct route by UL does not have enough passengers and may work with an European stop over. Airbus 330 cannot operate direct Colombo - Toronto route due to distance IMO
Perth is a good option and direct flight takes about 6.5 hrs. LHR 9 weekly frequency is recommended.

MRE's been parked for a long while now.
D check in progress?

acquiring brand new A359s might take a while to happen considering that there's a long backlog for A359s as well.
UL might do what 3U did to their(UL'S) to-be jets, and take up NTU orders(but built)

Notsure why UL slashed the China schedule last year. UL had the plan to resume CMB-PEK route from 27-Oct-25 but again UL's CMB-PEK route resumption moved to Summer 2026. Proposed plan of increasing frequency on CMB-ICN route from 2 to 3 weekly in Winter 2025 also moved to Summer 2026. UL will continue to fly 2 weekly to CMB-ICN.route in Winter 2025. I also notice UL is terminating daily CMB-AUH route from 08-Sep-25. Wonder what's going on.

Just because there is a diaspora it doesn't mean the route will work - I've seen it. Typically they want to come in the school holidays, in winter, leaving the rest of the year empty. Yes connections will help but AC is not oneworld and as soon as you add a connection you lose the advantage over EK, QR, EY etc.

Italy yes there is a market, but again it needs a good mix of premium and economy, business and leisure, year round.

NBO & ADD yes good potential for both pax and cargo as you said.

China yes there is a market but it needs to first attract the tourists before operating. I'm intriigued why UL slashed the China schedue last year?.

MOW was stopped because of the sanctions - lessors, insurance etc came within the scope of sanctions

Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh yes good potential; MNL I doubt. Again yes some market but not enough to fill 2-3 330s a week, and connections from ME/Africa UL will compete with all the GCC carriers and just offering cheaper is not a way to success.

But , at least UL should find a way to acquire the 4 a350s , which is already in the airbus order book.

And try to lease few more A330-900 (hopefully 2 will join soon).

And compete with the other airlines. If we can manage to get an A350, it can schedule for a destination like Toronto as a lot of Srilankan diaspora living in Canada and south Asians too. There are number of tourists visiting SL from Canada and USA according to stats. If the connection flights do very well (very important )from both CMB and YYZ and also from American cities to YUZ, all these people will attract to the UL direct flight and the fares must be reasonable too.

also, UL should resume destinations like Rome, Milan, Perth with good connecting flights from both ends.

Nairobi, Addis Ababa will definitely a good move in terms of both pax , cargo also the transit passengers via CMB (especially to south and east Asia). Again, this flight should connect to other cities in Africa from Nairobi/ ADD to get a high pax load.

6E connection flights are very challenging to UL as they cover all Indian cities , SEA and Middle East region. But UL should resume flights to kolkata and possibly kozhikode , Ahmedabad too.

LHR frequency should increase from 7 to 10/11 flights per week if possible. (used to be 9 during winter and SL peak season time). If not Gatwick would be another option too in addition to the LHR daily flight.

UL should resume Shanghai and Hong Kong once it resumes Beijing service. Possibly another Chinese city like Hangzhou or Xiamen to attract Chinese tourists.

UL should increase the frequency to Seoul Incheon from 2 to 4/5 per week.

No idea that why UL ceased Moscow flight (UL533/534) but it’s worthy to resume, as there’s no other airlines operating to CMB at the moment till Aeroflot resumes.

Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh , and Manila will be a good option for UL in terms of tourism and transit passengers from South Asia, Middle East possibly Africa via CMB. Possibly some cargo too.

At last, anything is possible if we got enough aircraft’s in the fleet to operate all the destinations.

It’s definitely the right time for UL and the SL government to plan the future of UL. If not, we’ll face the same situation as now in 2030s due to shortages of aircraft and continuing operations to all these destinations without any issues.

Government cannot give a capital injection to acquire new jets, at leased used ones. not 2 pr 3 jet, fleet of jets.