Sri Lanka Aviation

Ownership under Srilankan government but 100% foreign and private managememt please.

Hard landing UL-266 flight recorder France-bound for reading

The cockpit voice recorder of a SriLankan Airlines A340 aircraft damaged while landing at Bandaranaike International Airport on July 2, was sent to the French Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses (BEA) for reading, Civil Aviation Director General H.M.C. Nimalsiri said. The BEA is the French authority responsible for safety investigations into accidents or incidents in civil aviation. It has categorised the occurrence as a “serious incident”, based on initial assessments by SriLankan officials...[/url]

Increase efficiency(ops, sales), reduce cost, service excellence, new equipment. Its not only management that matters. Above should apply from top to bottom.

Hard landing UL-266 flight recorder France-bound for reading

The cockpit voice recorder of a SriLankan Airlines A340 aircraft damaged while landing at Bandaranaike International Airport on July 2, was sent to the French Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses (BEA) for reading, Civil Aviation Director General H.M.C. Nimalsiri said. The BEA is the French authority responsible for safety investigations into accidents or incidents in civil aviation. It has categorised the occurrence as a “serious incident”, based on initial assessments by SriLankan officials.

SriLankan Airlines flight UL 266 was returning from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, when it experienced a tail strike incident, causing some damage to the tail section of the aircraft, while no injuries were reported, SriLankan Airlines said last week. The matter is now under investigation by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of Sri Lanka, while the aircraft remains grounded, a statement from the airline said current.

The tail strike was caused, in technical terms, by a “high sink rate and flare followed by hard landing”. The aircraft itself is more than 19-years-old, with its maiden flight in 1994. It is reported to be one of the oldest A340s in service in Asia. The Sunday Times last week erroneously quoted CAA Chairman Gen. Rohan Daluwatte as saying initial investigations into the accident had indicated that a pilot error caused the incident. What he did state was that the incident was being probed.

Gen. Daluwatte said it was premature to comment on the cause or causes of the accident. SriLankan Airlines, too, said that it would be “speculative” to blame the tail strike on pilot error until the inquiry is completed. Mr Nimalsiri confirmed that the incident was serious, but that it could have been worse. On July 6, a tail strike suffered by an Asiana Airlines aircraft landing at San Francisco Airport, USA, started a fire onboard injuring more than 130 passengers and killing two. It is reportedly the first time a SriLankan Airlines aircraft has had a tail strike.

“We are primarily concerned with what really went on, with a view to rectifying the system,” Mr Nimalsiri said, of the investigation. “We must have an overall assessment. We may have completed one part, but that doesn’t give us the position to disclose the cause of the accident, because there might have been other things that also contributed.”

The Airline Pilots’ Guild of Sri Lanka said last week that the pilot had, in fact, done an auto-land on this particular flight. “We are required to conduct an auto-land every 45 days,” said Guild President Capt. Ruwan Vithanage. “It is a legal requirement tailored to keep current pilots to land in low visibility conditions. This pilot’s auto-land currency was expiring in two days, which was why he chose this option.”

However, the aircraft had sunk in the last 50 feet before touchdown. “This had caused the aircraft to have a low bounce, at which point the pilot-in-command had disconnected the auto-land and carried out a manual landing,” Capt. Vithanage reported. He said that, while a SriLankan aircraft had experienced a gear collapse in Chennai many years ago, there has never been an incident as serious as this before.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/130804/new...ing-55703.html

Sri Lanka national carrier needs experienced management to be profitable - Colombo Page

FIRE the entire management top to bottom including the pilots and bring back Harry (Stassen) Jayawardena, Absolutely no political interference after the transition. THEN Sri Lankan Airlines will give the Middle Eastern airlines such as Emirates a run for their money. Harry Jayawardena does not have a paper qualification nor any letters after his name but the man has a business sence similar to Warren Buffett that will put Tim Clark of Emirates to shame.... In case you forgot Harry was Chairman and CEO of Air Lanka before it was handed over to Emirates and the airlines account was in the black.. Personally I hate the Son of a Bitch, but hey I got to admit he's the man for the job...

totally agree..............highly paid staff need to FIRED immediately, this is one the main reasons y Mihin is making losses.......Mihin has good load factor of Jakarta, Dhaka, Madurai, Bahrain routes but still continue to make huge losses

FIRE the entire management top to bottom including the pilots and bring back Harry (Stassen) Jayawardena, Absolutely no political interference after the transition. THEN Sri Lankan Airlines will give the Middle Eastern airlines such as Emirates a run for their money. Harry Jayawardena does not have a paper qualification nor any letters after his name but the man has a business sence similar to Warren Buffett that will put Tim Clark of Emirates to shame.... In case you forgot Harry was Chairman and CEO of Air Lanka before it was handed over to Emirates and the airlines account was in the black.. Personally I hate the Son of a Bitch, but hey I got to admit he's the man for the job...

Where is our resident "social media expert" with his expert inside and unbiased views?

I used to fly UL a lot during those pre-EK days, purely because I was young, naive and blindly patriotic. Missed countless connections due to cancelled and delayed UL flights and also on one occasion the dreaded L1011 had a cargo door opening mid air (over Oman) and we had to return to DXB. After this incident I stopped flying UL and shifted to EK (their A300 / 310s were cramped, but at least managed to keep the cargo doors intact).

Since the taking over of management by EK, UL quickly became a flyable airline and I reverted to flying them, this time with great satisfaction. Besides, they were code sharing with EK to such an extent you almost lost track whose metal it was until you were onboard (unless you noticed the four digit flight numbers).

If someone says, EK ruined UL (during their time of managing it) I will be the first to raise my hand in protest. Sure, they used UL rights (particularly to JFK) and took away their part of the profits, but they also made a lot of money for the Government of SL by making UL a profitable, flyable airline.

Also, I can assure you that EK had a moratorium on hiring from UL during their time of managing UL. I know this because some people that I knew actually considered it a 'curse' in that they were deprived of the opportunity to work for a better paying airline. Once the contract ended and EK cut UL loose, it is true that EK lifted the moratorium and recruited UL staff en-mass. But can you blame them for that?

We're talking about profitability and management. Harry was at the reins for a very short time just before EK took over. By that time the delays had been cut down by 90% those who caused it and those who were inefficient were all FIRED... The bottom line of the airline was in the black from the red and that is why Tim Clark and the like couldn't stand the man as he prevented them from plundering from the airline and taking it back... The delays and inefficiencies were the result of the rote that had set in before the guy took over as Chairman/CEO... He came a long way since taking over and was never given the chance of finishing the job, sorry to say....

Delay and efficiencies were fixed by EK bringing proper management team...including stronger delivery service management team. If it not for EK UL would have need to file bankruptcy soon after July 2001. Harry J is upset coz he could not interfere with the management.