Sri Lanka Aviation

Yeah but the cost is too high right to keep the A333. If they are able to sell/lease the wide bodies, restructure and cut costs. It will be a lot better.

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Sure UL will loose the passengers if they operate the flights with an aged aircrafts.What's their restructure plan? Where they are going to expand? Any more aircraft joining the fleet for the expansion?

I am hearing one of the A333 leaving UL for PIA next month. Leaving day for other two not confirmed yet.

I can sense their desperation from here....

Knowing how things (don't) work within this dysfunctional Airline with it's toxic company "culture" I would expect that these new A330's are being leased above market rates.

Only an investigation will reveal if this is another racket or just incompetence. Highly doubtful that the truth will ever be revealed.

Restructure Plan? Not sure how anyone can expect anything from a bunch of appointed people - none of whom are remotely qualified for the positions they hold. There is no conceivable way to ever make this profitable.

Expect lots of Big Talk - that's all these people know how to do.

Expansion? With over a Billion $ in losses and 2 Billion $ + in future liabilities - which they have no way to pay. More losses for the people of Sri Lanka.

The only "expansion" taking place is in the size of the bank accounts of the Racketeers and the useless appointees.

It's quite simple. There is no money. The entire country is bankrupt - all the money has been spent or stolen.

No money = no options
No money = no expansion
No money = no future

The moment the Treasury stops putting in money this shuts down - could happen as early as October imho.

Even BG has a better fleet than UL

As for deferring the A 350 orders, well, I don't know if that was the right thing, defer and forego the deposits and penalties..

If you look at the positive reviews for UL on almost 100 % are due to a better experience from the new A333s. The majority of negative ones have a common recurring theme of old aircraft, dysfunctional entertainment systems and surly crew..

That said UL did survive wih 20 year old Tristars when they had no choice.. so not exactly a new austerity path for them. I am just not sure what kind 'light at the end of the tunnel' plan they have, or if they even have one.

BG, PIA, AI are a country mile ahead of UL in terms of fleet..........and UL wants to compete with the big 3 (EY,EK,QR)......what a joke

replacing the A333s with a few Tristars and DC-8s is an amazing restructure plan

When UL pulls out of Frankfurt and Paris at the end of the year, this will mean there will be no year-round scheduled flights linking mainland Europe and Colombo.

I wonder if airlines like KLM are considering a more stable year-round operation to CMB. They could easily make it work. Maybe even Austrian too can look at year-round services.

I've noticed that with the code-share with QR beyond to Europe, there is no extra capacity mounted between CMB and DOH to cater for this extra demand now apparently being channeled via DOH.

Biman reopens flight routes with planned expansion

Biman Bangladesh Airlines has worked out a plan to resume flight operations on some of its closed routes along with opening new ones after inducting new aircraft into its fleet.

It also decided to start its operation on Dhaka-Guangzhou (China)- Dhaka, Dhaka-Colombo (Sri Lanka)-Dhaka and Dhaka-Male (The Maldives)-Dhaka routes during the upcoming winter.

Vistara says first overseas routes will include South Asia

Indian airline Vistara will feature South Asian nations among its first international destinations, a senior executive said on Wednesday, as it devises its strategy after the government eased restrictions on flights abroad last month.

Vistara, a venture of the Tata group and Singapore Airlines Ltd, is "reviewing and refining" its plan for overseas routes and will decide on aircraft orders afterwards, Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer Sanjiv Kapoor said at an event.

"The first set of routes that we will launch internationally will be the routes that can be flown by our existing aircraft, the A320s, which will be routes within three, three-and-a-half hours of India," Kapoor said, referring to narrow-body aeroplanes built by Airbus Group SE.

"Regional routes and SAARC, essentially," he said, referring to member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I cannot speak about BG, but AI and PA are just as crappy if not worse than UL in terms of fleet. They may have newer models but if you look at the upkeep of the interiors you'd think they were flying for more than 20 years. And I let's not forget how AI maintenance treats their birds.

I didn't say that ..

Currently passengers from India, Far East etc are taking transit in CMB to catch UL direct flights to FRA & CDG. UL will loose those transit pax when UL pulls out of FRA & CDG because no pax wants to take transit in both CMB and DOH to reach Europe. As far as i see QR codeshare agreement benefiting the UL pax originating and ending the journey from/to CMB.

I want to UL expand their services regionally with A320s. They better consider daily flights to HKG, open new routes like Vietnam, Nepal and more flights to India, Southern China, Far East and Middle East.

UIA planning to operate twice weekly KBP-CMB nonstop with year-round service from Nov 2016. TK is planning to fly Istanbul - Bali - Sydney route. Does this route have a premium traffic ? why TK is not considering Istanbul - Colombo - Sydney route?

UL flight service have been improved a lot if you notice World Airline Rankings in Skytrax. In 2016, SriLankan ranked in 67 and Jet Airways ranked in 71. Last year UL ranked in 73. AI, PK, BG are not even in the top 100 list this year.

It's very sad UL is subleasing the 3 x A330-300 to PK but after these 3 x A330-300s left the fleet UL better constantly use 4 x remaining A330-300s on long-haul routes in LHR, NRT, PEK and UL better use A332s on middle east sectors and medium haul destinations.

Why did UL removed Mr. Rakhita from the CEO position? I think Rakhita much better than Suren Ratwette. What do you think?

According to UL website Mr. Rakhita is now in the director position.

Mihin Lanka will increase direct flights to Jakarta from July 21 with a daily frequency.The airline currently operates five flights a week.

With the Visa on Arrival (VOA) friendly policy adopted by Indonesian authorities to Sri Lanka and over 80 other countries flying to Jakarta is made easier and it has created a major demand. “This is the reason we decided to increase our frequency to a daily flight,” a Mihin Lanka official said

Source:Ceylon Daily News