Sri Lanka Aviation

Banuthev,


UL shot itself in the foot and is still shooting itself. The airline long time ago should have been serving India with at least 300 flights per week connecting tier 1,2 and 3 cities. It was never done. Just look at what happened when we joined Oneworld alliance. We signed up before Qatar Airways, but Once Qatar came in UL became useless to the point we only added TRZ and HRI to the OW network. Even BA and AA codeshare with Indigo Airlines an LCC.

Indigo Airlines and now Air India and AIX will start flying (and are already) from Tier 2 cities in India to ME and SE Asia.

Even getting Used Aircraft like A320 and A330 has become an issue for us for growth.

So who is our target market now? India Is way beyond MAA, BOM, DEL, HYD and BLR. We lost out on a lot of opportunities within the SAARC and SE Asia. Looks like the commercial teams are not concerned at all. Very Sad

I think I have to agree with umedhah . And also with ULlove aviation industry in SL is a mess and very inefficient. We had the golden opportunity of being in the middle of Aussie & Europe connection, we didn't took the chance. We were the Indian's best choice for long distance flights, we didn't take the chance. We could have done a lot.

If UL took the initiative of doing things right there could have been a space for budding airlines to bloom in SL. Now it's just a joke. No growth space for small players. Everyone from the outside scrape what we could have cultivated.

Also, I don't like to say speculative things on a public forum. But you know what those "bogus" companies "could" do. In my defence, I'm not saying anything definitive here.

Great to hear new airlines wants to come into the market and spread the wings ! This will make the market competitive and passengers will get an advantage

Yes i see last flight operated on the 15-Jul so operated for only 3 months. I wonder if it's suspended due to lack of passenger demand. I saw on the news Sri Lanka tourism didn't do well in 2024, may be due the issue with e-visa. I see China Eastern and Air China also planning to reduce CMB flights from 7 weekly to 3/4 weekly. Very sad.

Sri Lanka is issuing free-visa scheme. Hopefully tourism will get better,

It's possible, the first flight arrived with around 78 passengers as far as I am aware, not really great or ideal considering the max passengers for an A320NEO is 170 passengers, But I think the remaining passengers disembarked to the Maldives, I believe SL should market itself as a Bali/Phuket alternative to get more tourists and I think the free visa scheme being introduced is great and all, Sadly the VFS global controversy kind of slowed tourism. Hopefully tourism picks up during the winter months.


Air Seychelles has also reduced flights from SEZ TO CMB from twice weekly to once weekly and China Eastern has reduced KMG-CMB flights from daily to one weekly, they have also stopped serving the Maldives as well on their KMG-CMB-MLE route. Such a shame honestly!

Good to know that they are planing to resume flights once again - tried chasing after their 737 Max 8 on the MAA-CMB sector towards the end of last year but a last minute aircraft change got us 737-700 which was an even better deal.

AirSial, a private airline in Pakistan, is stated to start direct flight operations between Colombo and Islamabad, Sri Lankan High Commissioner Admiral (Retired) Ravindra Chandrasiri Wijegunaratne said. Air Sial receives authorisation to operate Islamabad-Colombo service. AirSial is set to expand its fleet with the addition of two aircraft early next year, in preparation for launching international operations from Pakistan to China, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkiye, the United Kingdom, and Kuwait


Is this a new flight route Tehran-Colombo haven’t seen it before?

4R-ALH inactive since 18 august?

Totally Agree with Umedha - way too many planned startups, very few actually materializing

If so Air Ceilao was to commence Ops, any idea what business model they’d adopt? A hybrid would be the best option right now

Agreed 100%

Also to add a few more airlines to the list, I honestly missed airlines such as Oman Air, Kuwait Airways & Saudia who have stopped ops to CMB on my recent trip to Saudi Arabia having returned a couple of days ago

Currently UL do not serve JED which is a huge inconvenience specially for Umrah pax. I believe they benefited quite a bit on this sector with pilgrims connecting form CGK, MAA, TRZ and COK when they did operate. Puzzles me why they only serve DMM and RUH now

UL does not seem to care of the pilgrim traffic and with Riyadh Air launching soon, they’d definitely be in on the demand from CMB

In terms of the limited options to connect to JED, Tickets too are horribly expensive - we few FlyDubai as we had a very limited handful of options available (fares kept increasing day by day) FZ’s hard product is highly inconsistent with a mix of Max 8’s and 738’s being flown to and from DXB

8D unfortunately does not have the capacity to serve JED however I did see it somewhere that JED, DMK and KUL were their “focus-destinations” which they’d probably launch once they receive their wide-bodies in the near future

As of now the only glimmer of hope in the Sri Lankan Aviation market right now is FitsAir (they are still in their early stages of growth) - what they have archived to date is noteworthy and with Perter Hill at the helm, they would definitely be a force to recon with in the future

4R-ALH is active now but 4R-ALS

4R-ALS is back in service now.

Thanks for highlighting the absense of WY, KU and SV at CMB. What's the reason these airlines are still pulling out of CMB ? SV's last flight back in 2019. GF also currently flying via MLE instead of nonstop to CMB. Salamair is going to reduce flights to CMB. Saudi based airlines such as Flynas & Flyadeal also not keen to fly CMB. I am wondering why? Is it due to the domination of QR, EK, FZ and EY?



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there is rumor fits air making losses is that true?

4R-ALR is inactive since 23rd AUG

Good question
I suppose that with the present taxes and levies imposed on flights to CMB would not make since for them to operate as their competitive advantage (low fares) may not be as low enough to challenge the existing competitors as you have mentioned.
In my recent experience LCC fares offered by FZ, G9 and OV's to the middle east are almost similar to the legacy carriers QR, EK, EY etc. - also pax. would prefer to pay the fare difference to fly with a legacy carrier with its value additions