I see it's almost there.

Don't know who's flying - normally if the flight shows up on the company timetable it is being flown by Hifly. This may be different.

Showing a local test flight Feb 01 and a ferry from Malta to Lisbon Feb 03.

Someone at UL must be following our forum

any idea??

Raymond Zammit in Malta captured 4R-ADE in plain cloths




(Photo credit - Raymond Zammit)

May i know why this aircraft going to be ferried from Malta to Lisboa? I thought it will be flying for Hifly Malta with registration 9H-SUN.

UL was leased the 4R-ADE in Oct 2003 from leasing company called "Macquarie" on 12 years lease. Does this mean Hifly has now leased it from Macquarie again?

SriLankan Airlines environment conservation ranked second in Asia

SriLankan Airlines gained worldwide recognition for its pioneering efforts in environmental conservation when the prestigious Business Traveller magazine ranked it second among airlines in the Asia and Asia-Pacific region for having the lowest carbon footprint.

The enormous region includes the Middle East, South Asia, the Far East and Asia-Pacific, home to most of the world’s finest airlines.

Ajith Dias, SriLankan Airlines’ Chairman, said: “SriLankan Airlines takes great pride in being among the best corporate citizens in our country, in both the state and private sectors, especially when it comes to sustainable practices with regard to our community, our customers, and our employees.”

No idea who the aircraft is leased from. They bought an A340 2 years ago. They are always looking for good deals on airbus aircraft.

Hifly operates globally - Lisbon is where the head office and maintenance hanger is located. My guess is that the aircraft will need some additional work.

A lot of it will be simple things like putting safety cards/documentation on board. All the people that do these things are in Lisbon.

There may be some flights planned from Lisbon as well.

Or they may want to show the aircraft to various clients.

Hifly is run like a business by people who know what they are doing. Basically the complete opposite of UL.

Example - a number of aircraft are leased by the hour. If they don't fly there are only parking fees to be paid. At one airport they were paying E300/day. Smart.

There are a number of flights we do that can only be done by the A340 - it's the perfect aircraft for these flights.

The International Airports in India & the Airports covered by UL & MJ.

UL
MJ

Airports in India -International
Gaya
Lucknow
Patna
Varanasi
Bhubaneswar
Guwahati
Imphal
Kolkata
Siliguri
Amritsar
Chandigarh
Delhi
Jaipur
Srinagar
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Hyderabad
Kochi
Kozhikode
Madurai
Mangalore
Port Blair
Tiruchirappalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
Ahmedabad
Goa
Mumbai
Nagpur
Pune

See even to be a Regional Airline they have to expand operations to so many cities.

And the below cities also have to be considered.
Islamabad
Kathmandu
Chittagong
Yangon
Ho Chi Ming
Hanoi
Phnom Penh

From the article:-

So a Deputy Minister doesn't know how business is done in Sri Lanka?

This is nothing but theft, fraud and corruption - Sri Lankan tax payers get stuck with the bill.

It's not difficult to figure out. Another MiG deal on a much larger scale.

Here's a radical idea - if the reasons aren't known how about an investigation?

A Billion Dollars+ in losses and another Billion in future liabilities - and nothing is being done about it.



Not a bad article by the former temporary CEO.

I can't help but remember no action being taken while he was in charge - another useless NATO member!

Analysis:-

By doing nothing the problems at UL have only grown - requiring increasingly drastic measures. It's simply not realistic to expect a pack of unqualified, government appointed clowns to be anything more than NATO members.

At some point the cash will run out and there will no longer be any choices left. I think they're at this point. Choices will be made for them.

Example:- They don't want to cut European Routes but there's no cash to operate them so they get cut.

If they're in talks with Skyworks Capital then that's an admission that UL has lost control of the situation. In any normal company this would mean the automatic dismissal of the management and board of directors.

My guess is that they tried to offload the A350's to Qatar - another act of desperation.

A real tragedy that things have come to this point.

Emirates has announced a fifth flight to Colombo (except on Wednesday)adding more pressure to UL on the CMB-DXB route.

This goes to show the state of UL.

EK can fill 5 777s a day to Colombo when UL struggles to fill a single A332 (some days they operate the A321!), not to mention the 2-3 daily flight by FZ.

Instead of burning money on vanity routes in Europe UL should concentrate on regional flying, where there is a lot of money to be made.

Himalaya Airlines signs long-term pact with SriLankan Airlines

Himalaya Airlines, a new Nepal-China joint venture airline company, has announced that it has signed a long-term service agreement with SriLankan Airlines aviation integrated training academy, SriLankan Training, to receive A320 family simulator training for pilots and cabin crew members.

SriLankan Airlines Flight Simulator Center, located at Bandaranaike International Airport, with its first A320-200 full flight simulator, will offer a total flying experience on ground to Himalaya Airlines pilots, such as aircraft type specific safety and emergency procedures, crew resource management and cabin crew service training courses within a purpose-built state-of-the-art facility, as per a statement issued on Thursday.

Flight crew will be trained on most advanced and extensive fleet of full motion flight simulators that have a standard state-of-the-art visual fidelity, motion and sound.

This has probably more to do with EKs connectivity Dubai rather than traffic getting off in Dubai. EK can give good connections and at good prices and they started planning for all this only 30 years ago....

That said I think UL should concentrate on regional routes for now; UL does not have the connectivity any of the ME3's can offer nor can CMB offer what Dubai can offer in terms of layover; we have numbskulls running both the airline and the country to develop either one .....

The best UL can ever hope for now and offer is beating the Indian airlines by offering better service and connectivity and stealing traffic from India .... but I wouldn't hold my breath on it

EK is dominating the CMB route like anything. Does UAE has Open Sky Policy to Expand more flights to Colombo?

New Flight Schedule (effect Aug 2016)
EK648 – 13:55 – 19:55 – DXB-CMB – DAILY – B777-300ER
EK649 – 22:10 – 01:00 – CMB-DXB – DAILY – B777-300ER

EK is already operating three daily flights and 6 weekly flights between CMB-DXB and seven weekly flights between CMB-SIN.

Perfectly aligned for the 2-4am departure bank in DXB!

This is going to hurt both EY and QR.