Sri Lanka Aviation

SriLankan claims Rs. 114 m from Presidential Secretariat -

SriLankan Airlines has written to the Presidential Secretariat claiming nearly 114 million rupees accrued as expenses for Presidential voyages since 2011.

SriLankan Chairman Ajith Dias in a detailed letter has asked the Secretary to the President P.B.Abeykoon to settle a sum of one hundred and thirteen million, four hundred and ninety four thousand and seven hundred and twenty four as expenses incurred for Presidential voyages during the last three years of the tenure of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Chairman Dias has given details of the expenses and the taxes levied separately.

The SriLankan invoice to the Presidential Secretariat had also included the charges for the charter flight hired by Rajapaksa to visit Tirupati on December 9 and 10, 2014.

Rajapaksa accompanied by UNP former General Secretary Tissa Attanayake visited the renowned Tirupati temple in South India less than a month before the January 2015 Presidential election.

The expenses incurred for the Tirupati flight which was largely considered as unofficial, amounts to nearly Rupees four million.



See more at: http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=local/sri....z1X0jZNk.dpuf

Any news regarding a new CEO for SriLankan?

Gayan Peiris, Manager SriLankan Holidays and part of Airlines, told Business Line the airliner currently operates 86 flights to seven destinations in India. The number was higher at about 100 flights per week earlier. Due to business reasons, it was brought down. Now it is proposed to add more connections. The Chennai market is connected with 26 flights per week.

As a part of boosting the tourist traffic flow into Sri Lanka, the airliner is looking at several new destinations, including Vishakhapatnam, Chandigarh and Hyderabad.

Peiris said that the Airlines works closely with the Bureau offering tailor made incentive trips for MICE executives.

SriLankan Airlines flies high at SLIM NASCO awards 2015

SriLankan Airlines managed to bag three outstanding titles at the SLIM NASCO Awards 2015, held at the Water’s Edge recently. The award ceremony was organized by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing, coinciding with the annual National Sales Congress, to recognize and reward the outstanding sales personnel of Sri Lanka.

SriLankan Airlines’ Manager Maharashta, Mr. Dilshan Kudahetty won the Gold Award for the Territory Manager in Travel and Trade category while the Airlines’ Manager- Japan, Mr. Fawzan Fareid bagged the Silver award. The most prestigious all Island award for outstanding territory manager of the year 2015 was also won by Mr. Kudahetty.

Commenting on the exceptional achievements, SriLankan Airlines’ Head of Worldwide Sales, Mr. Lal Perera said, “We are extremely proud to have such outstanding personalities in the Airline, whose dedication and commitment have contributed immensely to the national carrier’s expansion and growth. I am confident that these awards will serve as an inspiration not only to the winners but also to the Airline’s performance-driven workforce whose perseverance to achieve greatness will take the Airline to new heights.”

The objective of SLIM NASCO is to raise the standard of sales professionalism, to recognise and reward the performance and the potential of sales professionals and to enhance the value proposition of the sales profession in Sri Lanka. This year has seen the highest number of entries for the 15 diverse business sector categories as well as the highest number of companies participating in the history of the event, consisting several multinational giants and diversified local conglomerates.

http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/s...o-awards-2015/

UL's fourth A333E (4R-ALO / CN 1650) was flying another acceptance flight from TLS to TLS on the 30/07/2015. Any idea about when it's going to be delivered to Colombo? 4R-ALO must be replacing 4R-ADG (ex CX) which is currently undergoing lease return check in the hangar in CMB.

Was watching the video clip which was filmed during the recent SriLankan Holidays's press meet on youtube. From the video I come to know UL is currently working on feasibility study on expanding the network and frequencies into Indian & Chinese Destinations. Seems to be UL has dropped the plan of operating its own metal into Melbourne which sked was loaded in amadeus for a shorter period of time. UL is planning to replace older A320s (must be ABK & ABL) with brand new A321s. UL's A359s likly to have the seat config as 28 J / 301 Y but notsure when it's going to join the fleet. But UL better go ahead with 3 x A359 order (2 aft for LHR route & 1 for NRT route) .

UL have changed the flight timings to NRT effec 30 Sep as : UL454 CMB1915 – 0700+1NRT x124 / UL455 NRT1110 – 1740CMB 333 x235

An unrelated, inside gossip.. in this part of the world

MSN 1321, A330-200, VP-CBE, is for immediate sale / lease, and going very cheap.

https://www.airfleets.net/ficheapp/plane-a330-1321.htm

The used, 3-year-old Airbus is now selling for at most only $90 million, much lower than its listed price of $229 million when it was new.

The multi-million-dollar Airbus 330-202 which the leadership of the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) has been using for trips abroad has been put on the market for “immediate” lease or sale, informed sources told Rappler.

Listed under “used Airbuses” on the myairlease.com site as of May 2015, the Airbus 330-200 had a list price of $229 million. Its “used price maximum” was listed as $90.01 million, while its “used price minimum” was $28.03 million.

+1

Silly of them to have bought a new one, when the more richer folks there buy planes and park them under a leasing company and pretend to lease them back for their own use.

Nobody has any clue of the actual interior anyway, as of now, but knowing the gang that owns the plane, they may just claim to have sold but park it under another entity.

SriLankan Airlines now broadcasts live channels of BBC News, ACCU Weather and AFP Sports has been activated on the IFE , on ALL / ALM / ALN aircraft.

Must be because the A333 is a constant on the CMB-LHR route.

SriLankan have better ticket-prices for London route this summer. It seems to be SriLankan is now doing a very good passenger service according to Skytrax - http://www.airlinequality.com/airlin...nkan-airlines/ .

Does MJ have particular rotation for each aircraft or its just FIFO?

Sri Lankan Airlines to introduce cargo freight service from Trichy soon

As Trichy International Airport is witnessing a rise in cargo shipments, international freight carriers have decided to start their operations from the city. Sri Lankan Airlines will be the first to introduce a cargo flight from here in the next two months.

The airline is planning to introduce McDonnell Douglas MD-82 (twin-jet) (MD82) Aircraft for the cargo services. The carrier, which has a capacity of 19 tonnes, will be operated for twice a week, and the airline is currently working on processes involved in ground handling operations.

The Sri Lankan Airlines authorities recently convened a meeting with cargo officials and investigated facility at the cargo complex. H Nazir Ahmed, cargo manager of the India operation, Sri Lankan Airlines, in Chennai, said demand for goods from Middle East countries have increased, and only two flights are being currently operated from Trichy airport. More services can be introduced based on the ground handling operations.

Video: Govt. planning to sell SriLankan: Wimal

Don't know how far its true, just FYI

http://www.dailymirror.lk/83057/govt...sell-srilankan

UPFA Colombo district candidate Wimal Weerawansa today alleged that the government was planning to sell the national carrier SriLankan under its restructuring programme.

He told a media conference that separate companies are to be established for ground handling, training of cadet pilots, catering, management and maintenance of the airline.

“The proposed re-structuring will no doubt create the laying off of 6,800 employees directly and 30,000 indirectly. What is most damaging is their decision to sign code-share agreements with other international airlines on profitable air routes. The plan is to sell all these services to private companies,” he claimed. - See more at:

http://www.dailymirror.lk/83057/govt....xLEAAP8j.dpuf