Sri Lanka Aviation

Official Hambantota International Airport Website - http://www.hia.lk/ site not fully functional yet.

Sri Lankan A332 4R-ALJ (ex TCX G-OJMC) departed mid-afternoon on delivery to the airline as UL1506........ 4R-ALJ at EGCC









http://www.flickr.com/photos/golfking1/

You do realize anyone can edit the wikipedia entry?

Any possibility of direct air connectivity between Sri Lanka & South Korea?

Earlier there were some reports of Korean Air interest in Colombo…..

Is Korean Air Cargo flying to Colombo??

Novair cancels charterflights from Copenhagen, Gothenburg and Stockholm to Colombo from next Winterseason. Check novair's website if you understand sweedish

Very nice pictures of 4R-ALJ. Thank you for sharing.

Next Aircraft to join the UL fleet will be another 320 ( 4R-ABP ).

Korean Air to resume flights to Colombo - March 14, 2010

Korean Air, Korea’s national airline, is to resume flights to Colombo next month following the boom in tourism and increased travellers from there. Sarath Weerasooria, Chairman Finco Group told the Business Times that there would be about a 35 % increase in foreign arrivals in the forthcoming season.

He said that there is an increase in tourist arrivals from the US and Korea and anticipating that, Korean Air will restart flights from April, flying to Male and then to Colombo and onward to Seoul.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the 34th anniversary last week of Alpha Tours (Pvt) Ltd (ATL), part of the Finco conglomerate which is the - General Sales Agents for Korean Air in passenger and cargo traffic.

Mr Weerasooria spoke about the history of their association with Korean Air while Stewart Lee, Managing Vice President, Southeast/West Asia and Oceania, Korean Air explained the operations.

Mr Lee said that Korean Air operated a scheduled passenger flight from 1978 to 1984 and it was suspended due to commercial reasons. He said that they also operated the airline's first regular freighter service to Sri Lanka since 1989.

He said that ATL is the 1st Cargo GSA in Sri Lanka to obtain Certificate of GSSA registration from IATA in relation to the promotion selling and provision of services to airlines as an appointed International Air Transport Association (IATA) General Sales and Service Agent.

ATL was one of the best performing offline GSA's for Korean Air in the Asia Pacific region specially on Cargo. ATL was appointed GSA for Maldives for Passenger and Cargo in 2008.

http://sundaytimes.lk/100314/BusinessTimes/bt28.html

I did check KE Cargo website, CMB wasnt there though they have an office at CMB Airport for Cargo handling...

The Cabinet has agreed to offer a Government guarantee to the fledgling Sri Lankan Airlines to obtain a staggering US dollars 175 million-more than Rs 21.8 billion-from the Mashreq Bank in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to pay its creditors...... http://www.sundaytimes.lk/120318/News/nws_01.html

SriLankan Airlines had begun to implement its 2011 Business Plan with a re-fleeting and modernisation programme.

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/120318/News/nws_01.html

Capitalizing on its central location between Europe, Asia and Africa, SriLankan Airlines should focus on the enhancement of its services to existing destinations, as well as looking at new options after figures demonstrate the potential of new routes.......

Hope this business plan is comprehensive and successful...otherwise Sri Lankan Tax payer will get a bill for US $ 175 million

This old theory is quite debatable...Even Boeing and Airbus is still debating...is it point to point or hub and spoke...Hub and spoke...Colombo will have good competition from DXB/DOH and SIN/KUL