It is better to use this as a domestic airport for the time being. UL should get smaller air craft to fly between CMB-HRI and CMB-JAF at least on daily basis.

well this is a good suggestion but do we have enough traffic to consider HRI? cos when you are landed in HRI you are middle of now where... who would take such a flight unless somebody wants to Medamulana....

Need to be wait until Southern Express way extension is opened. Otherwise due to lack of connectivity roads will cause a negative impact. So wait for 3 months

Qatar has started their fifth daily connection already... earlier it was said that they are planning to commence the 5th flight from Apr'20 on wards.. last three days i have seen that 5th one is in operation..
Qatar schedule also now showing the same

the good news out of 5 of them.. 3 are A350s... this means the load factor is still good hahh
wonder why they are not operating the 6th one as well.. (somewhere between 2000-2200 hours..)

Even UL has increased its 11 flight a week to DOH to 13 a week

Anyone here knows exact details of UL A330neo order?

Engineers question airworthiness of 2017 leased Airbus
Call for fresh report on leased SriLankan plane

Tourism and Aviation Minister Prasanna Ranatunga has instructed Ministry Secretary Marina Mohammad to order a fresh, detailed report from SriLankan Airlines (SLA) with regard to the controversial Airbus A330-200 aircraft leased in 2017.

The Minister had given these instructions to the Secretary subsequent to a meeting he had with the Aircraft Engineers’ Association of SLA on Friday (3).

During the meeting it was revealed that the said aircraft had been brought to the country under the previous government amidst the severe objections by the aircraft engineers due to the lack of its airworthiness.


The aircraft, which had been used by Air Portugal, had been inspected by two SriLankan Airlines engineers before it was taken over by the national carrier. However, none of the representatives from the Civil Aviation Authority had participated during this aircraft inspection.

SriLankan airlines union representatives pointed out to Minister Ranatunga that this aircraft had been brought to Sri Lanka only in 2018 though it was originally scheduled to be put in to operation 2017. Since then, SriLankan Airlines, being the lessee, had been paying a monthly rental of USD 585,000 to the lessor but, the plane remains on the ground as its facilities are not up to standard.

The Minister instructed the Secretary to ignore a previous report compiled by the aircraft engineers and call a fresh and a detailed report from SriLankan and also a second report from the Engineers’ Association in this regard

Source : Ceylon daily news

Due to the prevailing unsettled situation in the Persian Gulf region, SriLankan Airlines has altered the route of its Colombo-London-Colombo flights to avoid the airspace of Iran and Iraq with immediate effect, as a precautionary measure.

SriLankan Airlines plans A330 Delhi service in 1Q20

SriLankan Airlines in the first quarter of 2020 once again plans widebody aircraft on Colombo – Delhi route. From 15JAN20 to 25MAR20, selected service will be operated by A330-200, instead of A320/321. The oneWorld carrier operates this route 3 times daily.

Planned A330 operation as UL195/196 as follows, note last-minute changes remain highly possible:
01FEB20 Day 6
02FEB20 – 14FEB20 Day x16
15FEB20 – 20FEB20 Day x15
21FEB20 – 01MAR20 Day x1
07MAR20 – 18MAR20 Day 36 (Selected days operated by -300)
19MAR20 – 25MAR20 Day x14 (Selected days operated by -300)

UL191 CMB0020 – 0410DEL EQV D
UL195 CMB1355 – 1735DEL EQV D
UL197 CMB1945 – 2325DEL EQV D

UL198 DEL0025 – 0405CMB EQV D
UL192 DEL0510 – 0850CMB EQV D
UL196 DEL1835 – 2215CMB EQV D

Source- routesonline.com

As long as , it is not the notorious 4R -ALS.

4R-ALJ was taken out of the service since 3-Jan-2020. Is it undergoing end of lease checks?

Emirates flight hits fox and bird at Mattala
View(s): 3303

An Emirates Boeing 777 which was diverted to Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) owing to bad weather hit a fox on landing and birds on take-off, aviation officials confirmed.

MRIA no longer takes scheduled flights. It is used only for emergency purposes. On the day of the incident, November 18, there was bad weather at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA).

The Emirates flight, EK652, arrived from Dubai via Male around 6.57pm. Upon landing it ran into a fox. The aircraft was examined by the maintenance crew of SriLankan and cleared for take-off to BIA after the weather settled. However, just minutes later the same aircraft suffered a birdstrike.

It was the first time since MRIA was opened in 2013 that an Emirates passenger flight used the airport. There were 73 persons on board and nobody disembarked, the Airport Manager said at the time, adding that it had departed after refuelling. Neither the bird strike nor fox strike were revealed to the public.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL) confirmed the incidents and said the aircraft had not been damaged. Pilots have, however, expressed concern previously at the prevalence of wildlife at the barely-used MRIA which was built on land cleared of jungle that was the home of elephants and other animals. In April 2018, nearly 170 passengers were stranded for hours at MRIA when their Flydubai Boeing aircraft suffered a bird strike. The flight landed past 7am and was cleared to fly at 2.32pm after an engineering check.

Bird strikes are not uncommon in airports and there were 83 reported in Sri Lanka in 2018 alone. Forty-two of these were at BIA. It is not, however, usual for aircraft to hit other animals?such as, in this instance, foxes?on the runway.

Last year, between June and November, there were at least seven diversions to MRIA. Six of them were SriLankan flights.

An Indonesian budget airline landed at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) this morning after two passengers fell ill and died.

Lion Air made an emergency landing at the BIA while on its way from Jeddah to Indonesia.

The airline had sought to transfer the two passengers to a hospital in Sri Lanka for medical attention.

However, the two passengers were pronounced dead. (Colombo Gazette)

New Board of UL appointed...

Just shows the state at which the airport is really in. Almost no aircraft operations which makes the animals think that the airport is also part of its habitat, Actually is since it is in the middle of their jungle.

The current regime also has almost forgotten MRIA ironically, with no real infrastructure developments or plans of revival. I believe even they have swallowed the better pill and accepted that this airport is a mere white elephant.Instead What really should have been done was a second runway for BIA or Expanding China-bay into an International airport, we would have not have even wanted JAF.

Also BTW on a side note is the ATC of BIA and Colombo center taking unwanted efforts on diverting flights even for the slightest of bad weather since I cannot recall this many flights being diverted from BIA when the MRIA was non existed.Is it all done just in a bid to try and increase aircraft movements one way or other.