Sri Lanka Aviation

SriLankan Airlines / Mihin Lanka Summer 2016 Network (Apr to Aug 2016).

Highlights

*SriLankan to boost the capacity to Singapore by increasing frequecies from 19 weekly to 21 weekly (3 flights a day on the daily basis);
*SriLankan to cancel Rome route from 30 Apr;
*SriLankan to increase frequencies to Riyadh from 5 weekly to Daily;
*Mihin Lanka operating Daily flights to Chennai between Mar and Aug. Effective August, Mihin flights to Chennai will be downgraded from Daily to 5 weekly;
*Mihin Lanka reducing the frequencies to Jakarta from Daily to 4 weekly but increasing Bahrain and Muscat flights from 5 weekly to Daily;
*SriLankan to increase Chennai service from 26 to 28 weekly;
*As reported by SriLankan official, SriLankan is not increasing Frankfurt fligts to 5 weekly effect July/Aug, as per AIS on 13-Mar-16;
*Current SriLankan fleet comprise of 6xA320s, 2xA321s, 6xA332s & 7xA333s and Mihin Lanka fleet have got 1xA319, 1xA320 & 2xA321s;
*SriLankan is looking to venture domestic netwok after acquiring 40seater aircraft;
*Mr.Siva Ramachandran had been appointed as CCO at SriLankan Airlines in January 2016. He had worked with Arikair, Kingfisher, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines etc in the past;

Network by frequencies, according to AIS of UL/MJ. AIS = Airline Inventory System.

From Colombo : -
01 Weekly - Gaya (MJ), Varanasi (MJ)
03 Weekly - Bangkok-Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Kolkota (MJ), Kunming, Rome (until 30 Apr), Seychelles (MJ),
04 Weekly - Bangkok-Guangzhou, Beijing, Dammam, Frankfurt, Jakarta (MJ), Paris, Shanghai, Tokyo;
05 Weekly - Chennai (MJ effec Aug), Jeddah, Lahore (MJ), Male (MJ);
07 Weekly - Abu Dhabi, Bahrain (MJ), Bangkok, Chennai (MJ until Aug), Delhi, Doha, Dubai, Karachi, Kuwait, London, Madurai (MJ), Mumbai, Muscat (MJ), Riyadh, Trivandrum;
10 Weekly - Dhaka (MJ);
11 Weekly - Bengaluru;
14 Weekly - Kochi, Kuala Lumpur, Trichy;
21 Weekly - Singapore;
28 Weekly - Chennai, Male;

Later I will post here the frequencies operated by rest of the airlines at Colombo & Mattala;

As I told before fco will be cxld... May be Meridiana will operate again to cmb from mxp

Neos Airlines Operated several flights from Rome to Colombo recently.

Airbus Readies A350 XWB Final Assembly Line to Ramp Up Production

Airbus has completed the extension of its Roger Béteille Final Assembly Line (FAL) in Toulouse, ahead of the production startup of its A350-1000. The extension comprises three additional assembly stations that will help the airframer to ramp up the production and reach the proposed goal of at least 50 A350s built in 2016.

Interestingly, the Toulouse FAL is able to produce both the A350-900 and its stretched variant, the A350-1000, in the same streamlined assembly process. This allows teams to work in parallel, reducing assembly times, and at the same time providing enough flexibility to the company to adapt the production while keeping optimal operational costs.

The additional stations include a new “Station 50,” where the three sections of the fuselage are mated as these arrive from external production sites. This station is also where the nose landing gear, the front crew rest area and the rear galley are installed.

Airbus has also incorporated a fourth “Station 40” in this production line, where the wing mating, and the installation of the empennage, main landing gear and engine pylons take place.

Finally, Station 30 is focused on the initial ground testing of the aircraft systems. Once this is completed, the aircraft is moved out of the FAL to undergo complementary tests. Final operations in the assembly process include installation of engines and passenger cabin fittings, painting, engine run-up and flight testing prior to customer acceptance and delivery.

Recently, this FAL received the first A350-1000 fuselage sections, thus starting the final assembly of the first aircraft last February 9. According to Airbus, the first A350-1000 one of three flight test aircraft to be built, will take to the skies for its maiden sortie before the end of the year, with deliveries expected to occur in mid-2017.

Any idea about this one?

May be due to failure of MJ331 this morning

Interesting !! What is the registration of the aircraft operated this UL1422 today. It seems to be Indonesian airline "Sriwijaya air" also operating on Indonesia-Sri Lanka with charter flights. Hope you would've seen on network update above MJ is reducing flights to CGK from daily to 4 weekly. Not sure why��

No mate, MJ331 route is Colombo - Kolkata
This is Colombo - Jakarta

Since CGK-CMB doesn't touch SIN, I wonder if that is for the Middle East traffic- or somebody is filling with cargo

Very true, although I really hope the two aging A320's namely 4R-ABK and ABL would be retired.I also hear that the two A321's leased from QR would be returned upon delivery of the A320NEO's

Any Possibility of new flights to HRI?

With the spare capacity available at Mihin Lanka's utilization of aircraft, was pondering on why they dont relaunch flights to HRI on the A319?
A frequency 3 to 4 times a week would be practical mainly to serve commuters and business folk along with tourists would be practical as I recall the daily flights UL157/158 operated by UL in the past did have a load factor of over 75% and that too being operated on the A320's

Cinnamon Air plans to start operations in the next few months and that too being on a Cessna aircraft with pretty exorbitant prices for such a short hop as well as Helitours now focusing mainly on tourists and thereby increasing fares by nearly twice as what they where before

Once the A320 fleet becomes all NEOs it wouldn't make sense to keep just two A321s with the older engines. However I do hope that SriLankan will also acquire some A321NEOs because that aircraft would be ideal (in terms of capacity) for many of the narrowbody routes SriLankan currently flies.

Hello Skyliner, A350-XWB, Digitalairliners etc..

Earlier today, UL's first A350 (MSN52) was rolled out to P18 for outdoor ground tests. Any pictures/updates?

Sources from inside BIA confirmed a team of engineers has been sent to Toulouse for a A350XWB maintenance training program.

Found MSN-49 / B-18901 / A350-941 / China Airlines

Looks like MSN-52 / UL-1 pictures still not available……

Hi, A350-XWB, any updates?