SriLankan to Toronto, 4R-ADG and Other Updates

There have been many news circulating about SriLankan Airline’s future plans and details have been minimum. To bring an end to the lack of information, AIR today has a wealth of information to share with you about SriLankan’s future. All of the following information are verified via official airline sources at the time of publishing.

Toronto. SriLankan will be launching flights to Toronto, Canada, from Winter 2011/12, yes. However, this will only be a code-share flight. The airline confirmed that it has no plans to operate own metal into Toronto, at least for the near future. From what AIR has learned, the airline is likely to launch a code-share flight with Air Canada, via London Heathrow.

The airline recently took delivery of its sixth Airbus A320-200 aircraft, brand new from Airbus (MSN4694/ 4R-ABM ), and also added a sixth Airbus A340-300 to its fleet. Both aircraft are now in service. The sixth A340-300, 4R-ADG, is configured with 38 Business class flat beds and 205 Economy seats ( Configuration for reservation. Actual aircraft configuration might be different).

The airline presently has one Airbus A330 undergoing routine maintenance work at Colombo since a few weeks. However this aircraft is not undergoing a refurbishment, as many had misunderstood. The refurbishment will begin in August, and the A330-200s will have a future configuration of 18 Business class seats and 251 Economy class seats ( down from the present 12j/275Y). The aircraft will very likely feature flat bed seats after the refurbishment.

The airline is also planning to return to one of its customers’ favorite European destinations. The flights are likely to resume from December 2011. (AIR has decided to keep the name of this destination under the wraps until officially revealed by the airline.) The airline however has no immediate plans foe a fifth weekly Paris frequency contrary to what some blogs have reported.

India and Sri Lanka also signed an MoU for a new bilateral air services agreement last week. This will lift some of the limits Sri Lanka based carriers have had on access to major Indian metros. Previously Sri Lanka based airlines were limited to maximum 67 weekly flights or 26,800 seats, to the Indan metros. Flights to Chennai were capped at 15 per week, although the India based carriers already operate 42 weekly flights between Chennai and Colombo. The new agreement will see Sri Lanka based airlines being allowed 42 weekly flights to Chennai and 14 weekly flights to Delhi ( up from 7 ). SriLankan is planning to add more frequencies on these routes in the near future.