Sri Lanka Aviation

Does anyone remember CS-TFZ? Hi-Fly's old-aged A330-200. It was once painted into SriLankan livery and then wasn't taken up by SriLankan, and was returned back to Hi Fly.

The aircraft has now come back to Colombo in all white, and will now be part of the SriLankan fleet as 4R-ALS. The aircraft has come to Colombo via Brussels last night, still bearing registration CS-TFZ.
Wonder when will they paint it into SriLankan colors?

Pictures soon.

Thanks for the update ! Why SriLankan need more aircraft when already the current fleet is under-utilised? SriLankan is already downsizing the network.

No idea. I think it will be replacing one 332 or a 320 family aircraft.

Thanks to Jerome for the picture.

We did not got any official emails on this. I'll update you once we receive. I assume since they're going to return 2 A330-200 as mentioned above this will be good. Hoping to have herringbone business class seats rather than older 2-2-2 configuration.

Some engineers at the airport 2-3 days back told me about them getting another aircraft which they said would be due to arrive in a few days time (which it actually did).

Nope, still no company e-mails to employees, but they might give soon, hopefully after configuring the a/c into UL configs, and also after livery I guess. Yes, this aircraft will replace a 332, probably ALA I guess.

If I am not mistaken leases of ALA, ALB, ALC, ALH, MRD, MRE were extended by Suren Ratwette in Oct 2016 ?

Great news!!!. Or will this be short term?? Coz Hi Fly is known to lease a/c short term as wet lease... NZ had our EX UL A340 4R-ADE from HI FLY during 787 issues.

She still got her Belly "Visit Sri Lanka" but just Blue painting from last time.

Not sure where you guys get your info from....

This is simply a transit stop - the aircraft is heading to Makassar with aid supplies for the Tsunami victims.

CS-TFZ ferried from BRU to CMB as flight HFY431P on the 3-Oct and it hasn't flew anywhere since it landed at CMB. Flight number has P in it so I believe its going to be painted at CMB and I am sure Hifly didn't bother painting this aircraft for the second time. I was speaking to aircraft engineer and he confirmed its going to become 4R-ALS.

Yes - as I told earlier, aircraft will be becoming 4R-ALS. I will update you soon.

P stands for positioning flight. It may also be applicable to relief flights but I can't find anything about this.

With the damage in Makassar perhaps the airport is not yet suitable for A330 operations. I imagine the NAV aids are all out as well.

Company timetable is showing a round trip ending up in Brussels. That's normally correct.

I have heard a rumour the aircraft will be returned to SriLankan - that will be at a later date.

Here's something the useless Big Talking Chairman of the Board doesn't want you to know.

CS-TFZ is already leased to SriLankan as part of the compensation deal for the A350 cancellation. SriLankan has sub leased it to Hifly. SriLankan is not taking delivery - it's getting the aircraft back!

I doubt Hifly leases aircraft at the same rates as SriLankan - my guess would be SriLankan loses money every month on this arrangement paying for an aircraft they are not using.

I can see why they don't want this getting out.

Sri Lanka state airline to fly to Europe after finding partner: Tourism Minister

Oct 05, 2018 17:02 PM GMT+0530 | 0 Comment(s)


ECONOMYNEXT - State-run SriLankan Airlines plats to find a joint venture partner by end 2018 and will resume flight to Europe, Tourism Minister John Amaratunga said.

"Unfortunately, the national carrier has stopped flights to Europe," Tourism Development Minister John Amaratunga said at a forum organized by the University of Colombo.

"Before end of the year, the cabinet is determined to go ahead with a joint venture with a world leading airline and get back to European destinations."

He said SriLankan flights have no seats, especially when operating from China.

Amaratunga said that the cabinet wants to further increase the fleet of the airline.

It is also not clear why the airline would want to fly to Europe when there is excess demand in Asia.

SriLankan Airlines had scrapped all routes to Europe except London, in a bid to cut losses and make it easier to find a partner.

It is not clear whether any new partner will choose to fly to Europe, which is competitive, and increase the fleet on the orders of the Cabinet.

The government is likely to take off some of the debt of the airline prior to a sale.

The airline had lost 163 billion rupees from 2009 to 2016, after Emirates exited as managing shareholder, after ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa took personal offense at a Emirates management decision.

Under Emirates SriLankan Airlines operated with no help from tax payers.

An ongoing Presidential Commission is revealing gross mismanagement at the airline from 2006 to 2018.

SriLankan now has 13, A330 long haul aircraft and 14 A320/321 medium haul aircraft.

The airline cancelled a lease of four A350 long haul aircraft while incurring a penalty fee of 115 million dollars.

Mano Tittawella, consultant to the finance ministry said SriLankan had hired negotiators to convert remaining order of Airbus A350 aircraft into equipment more useful for its strategy. (Colombo/Oct/05/2018) economy next

Air China A330 Plane lands 3 hours late due to bad weather

Officials at the Bandaranaike International Airport said due to heavy rains an aircraft traveling from China to Sri Lanka landed three hours after the scheduled time.

The duty manager said the aircraft was later diverted to the Mattala Airport.

According to the staff at the BIA, the aircraft which was traveling from Chengdu in China had 166 passengers and 13 crew on board.

The duty manager further said, the aircraft which reached the Mattala Airport at 10.30 PM was once again routed to the BIA at 12.30 AM and reached there at 1.10 AM.