Sri Lanka Aviation

Confirmed by UL

SriLankan Airlines will acquire seven Airbus A350-900 & six A330-300 aircraft to upgrade its product and cut costs starting from October 2014, chief executive Kapila Chandrasena said.

http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/n...50s/1532896203

Wirecard gains SriLankan Airlines as a new customer

Wirecard AG, provider of a globally accepted payment gateway with a worldwide customer base, is partnering SriLankan Airlines, to take over its payment services for credit card processing and risk management.

How do I know the order has been confirmed? Can't wait for this announcement from Airbus.

Mihin Lanka increases flight services to Madurai

MADURAI: With handsome passenger flow, Mihin Lanka - the domestic airliner of Sri Lanka, will increase its services between Madurai and Colombo from thrice in a week to four days from June 1 onwards. In a communication from Translanka - the general sales agent of Mihin Lanka - the airline will start a new flight on Thursdays from June 1.

The new service will depart from Colombo at 12.30 pm to reach Madurai by 1.30 pm and the flight will depart from Madurai by 2.30 pm to arrive in Colombo by 3.30 pm. The flight number MJ305/306 will be an A320 type aircraft with 180-seat capacity.

Initially, it was speculated that the airline will add two more services in a week. After the airlines started operating its flights from December last year, the patronage for the flight is good. Subahar Prem Ananth, assistant manager (sales) of Translanka, said that the airline at present operates three days in a week - Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The response among the passengers is very good; hence, the additional service on Thursdays.

B S G Musthafa, president of Travel Club in Madurai, said it was a positive sign from the airlines, the only international connectivity Madurai airport has at present. "The bookings show very good patronage for Mihin Lanka, especially passengers travelling beyond Colombo find the flight very convenient," he said.

Recently, the public forums and trade and industrial associations staged a protest demanding more international flights from Madurai airport. They registered their protest against the aviation ministry for not including the airport in aviation bilateral treaties, thus preventing foreign airliners operating their flights to Madurai. "There is better scope for the Madurai airport with passengers trying to reach Middle-East and countries like Singapore and Malaysia. Though the airliners in those countries are willing to operate flights to Madurai, Madurai's exclusion in treaties is an impediment," lamented S Rethinavelu, senior president of Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "Mihin Lanka operating one more service is a sign of passenger patronage for the international destination and we appeal to our MPs to raise this issue of bilateral treaties with the ministry," he said.

It looks like UL and Airbus hasn't yet signed the MoU for the new aircraft order. Yes, we need to keep an eye on the Airbus website because the order will be announced anytime soon :-) I wish if UL booked the order ASAP and start taking deliveries of new A333s from Oct 2014 like they mentioned to the Media. It appears to be Airbus orders are already over-booked but we need to replace all the A343s with brand-new Widebodies.

@Azamh - I remember you are saying in this forum that CX may lease some of the used A333s to UL as an interim replacement until all the Brand news A333s delivered to UL from Airbus. Any Updates?

Banuthev: 80 million will get you what ??

Anyway, I was told it is LT who is setting up the MRO, a-la their Manila Operation.

On the bright side, Sri Lanka will start to churn out LAMEs and such, for better job opportunities overseas ..

Nice, is this confirmed? Would be a big day for SL aviation if LT opened up a MRO like their Manila operation in Hambantota. Especially if it services A380s.

Rolls-Royce is expected to provide the engines for a multi-billion dollar refitting of SriLankan Airlines planes - but this must not influence the UK's diplomatic position over human rights in the south Asian country, campaigners say.

Sri Lankan Air Taxi seems to be linking with Cinnamon air for domestic service.
http://www.srilankan.com/en_uk/flying-with-us/airtaxi

The Twin Otter is removed from service in end of April. The aircraft must be in Koggala now removing floats and fixing wheels before leaving Sri Lanka.

Most in our fleet are RR or CFM right? None are GE. I know from experience RR are quieter than GE.

officially unofficially, LT Maintenance is on a roll recruiting engineers to be based in SL - so there must be something going on there ..

There are 3 A333 Painted White one took By Airasia x 2 are there.. Dunno wthr they will give it to UL ill chk and update

Quieter and far unreliable!

Airbus has installed on the first flight-test A350 XWB (MSN001) its two flight-ready Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines and also installing the new Honeywell HGT1700 auxiliary power unit (APU) at Airbus’ production facilities in Toulouse (France).

UL too slow, regarding the Airbus MOU.

Even Nepal Airlines has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to buy two Airbus A320 aircraft equipped with Sharklet fuel saving wing tip devices.