A new section has been added to Airline Industry Review with information on airlines and airports operating in the Sri Lankan domestic air travel market. The section is actively being constructed, but already has a wealth of information and aims to serve as a source on often less known aviation information on Sri Lanka’s domestic air travel market. This section can be accessed  at http://airlineindustryreview.com/sri-lanka/domestic-flights .

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

Sri Lankan government’s project to create a rail transfer service from Colombo city to the Colombo Bandaranaike Airport, has turned into a loss making venture. Keeping aside the usual suspecting of corruption involved in South Asian dealings, this is a suggestion to make the system work in Sri Lanka.

- If possible, import two to three new economical Diesel Multiple Units (DMU) for use on the service (economical being the highlight since the older Hitachi model presently used for this service can hardly be considered economical). The new DMU should be configured in a semi-luxury configuration. A luxury service would mean that higher fares need be demanded, which would make the project commercially non-viable. A higher density service would not be preffered by the tourists as the new service would probably be their first touchpoint with the country of Sri Lanka. As Sri Lanka does not have any electrified rail tracks, having an economical DMU would be essential to ensure that this train service is made profitable. A good choice would be a DMU similar to the HB-E300 Hybrid custom built to fit the track gauge size used in Sri Lanka – or may be even a choice similar to the Australian Transwa or Bombardier built Turbostars (Class 172 in UK), although Sri Lanka Railways might as well be able to find a suitable alternative from a Chinese or Indian provider too.
-Create booking partnerships with airlines operating into Sri Lanka. The service should be made available for integration on airlines’ websites through a dedicated Booking Engine backbone. A small commission should be made avaialble to the airlines which send bookings for the train service. This would prove to be an attractive source of ancillary income for the airlines and the possibility is that possibly almost all of the foreign airlines operating into Sri Lanka may participate. Once the service develops into a commercially successful venture, the train operator may start charging the airlines a monthly or annual fee to participate in the service.
But until then, it would be a task that should be well managed with a mix of efficient resource utilization bringing lower costs, lower fares and good marketing. While it might not be a project to consider very easy, it is something doable and almost certainly will guarantee success.

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

Making local aviation history, an Airbus A380-800 touched down in Sri Lanka today for the first time. The unexpected first arrival was A6-EDN, an Emirates A380, enroute from Sydney and Auckland. Apparently the A380 needed to refuel and selected Colombo instead of its previously planned Singapore stop – due to shorter total flying time on the way from Sydney to Dubai via Colombo.

Flight details

EK414 AKL-SYD-CMB-DXB

Scheduled departure out of Auckland: 1840 Actual: 1848

Scheduled arrival into Sydney: 2005 Actual: 2022

Scheduled departure out of Sydney: 2145 Actual: 2320

Planned departure out of Singapore: 0545 for a 0900 arrival into Dubai – CANCELLED

Scheduled arrival into Colombo: 0235 Actual: 0433

Scheduled departure out of Colombo: 0540 Actual: 0526

Scheduled arrival into Dubai: 0825 Actual: 0819

The exact cause on why the A380 needed to refuel is not yet known. The photos below are taken by an spotter on the field at the time, and are copyrighted to the photographer. The A380 was handled at Colombo by SriLankan Airlines Ground Handling.

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

The following photos depicting the present progress of the Hambanthota Mattala Airport development in Southern Sri Lanka, were posted on Sri Lanka’s Airport & Aviation Authority website.

The runway being constructed

Terminal area being developed

Terminal building being constructed

Air Traffic Control Tower being constructed

All photos copyright of the Airport & Aviation Services Ltd, Sri Lanka.

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

Sri Lankan business-focused website LMD has published an interview with SriLankan Airlines’ new CEO Mr. Kapila Chandrasena. He makes some interesting remarks and mentions about the airline’s future expansion while hinting about a new destination in Africa. Worth having a look at.

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

As posted on The Networker, SriLankan Airlines from 24th December is adding its fourth weekly frequency to Tokyo Narita. The new flight operates out of Colombo on Saturdays and out of Narita on Sundays, on board Airbus A340-300 aircraft. The flight will operate as UL454/5, the nonstop Colombo – Tokyo terminator. The carrier was awarded the rights for the fourth weekly flight early this year.

Schedule:

UL460 CMB 2340 – 1150 NRT 343 37
UL454 CMB 2340 – 1150 NRT 332 5
UL454 CMB 2340 – 1150 NRT 343 6 NEW

UL461 NRT 1310 – 1925 MLE 2025 – 2220 CMB 343 14
UL455 NRT 1320 – 1945 CMB 332 6
UL455 NRT 1320 – 1945 CMB 343 7 NEW

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

SriLankan Airlines flight UL422 returned to Colombo yesterday after it incurred a (yet to be reported) technical difficulty in-flight.
The Bangkok and Hong Kong bound flight left Colombo at 0727L (ETD 0720) and returned to Colombo at 0831L for a safe landing. The actual issue that the aircraft incurred is yet to be reported to the media (this website’s attempt to contact the airline’s OCC was fruitless – perhaps owing to the fact that it is a Sunday). The flight was operated by an Airbus A340-300 and it is believed that the aircraft was 4R-ADE.
A replacement aircraft, Airbus A330-200 4R-ALG, departed Colombo at 1114L and reached Hong Kong three and a half hours late at 2039L.
Aircraft 4R-ADE, whether it flew this flight or not, is yet to operate any flight since yesterday. This story will be updated once there are more details.

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

The following map depicts present air services by Sri Lank based passenger airlines to India. Shown in red are the routes operated by SriLankan Airlines while shown in blue are the routes flown by Mihin Lanka (IATA:MJ). Both airlines are majority owned by the Governmenet of Sri Lanka and have a common Chairman(Mr. Nishantha Wickremasinghe) and a common CEO (Mr. Kapila Chandrasena). Shown in green is the single route that the both airlines operate – Tiruchirapally. It should be noted that SriLankan Airlines too operates a single class aircraft to Tiruchirapally, as same as the single class LCC Mihin.

Maps generated by the
Great Circle Mapper -
copyright © Karl L. Swartz.

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

SriLankan Airlines has gone through many significant changes in the last few years. It switched its management from an Emirates led one to a local one in 2008, and became a state-owned entity in 2010. SriLankan’s present CEO, Mr. Manoj Gunewardena is due to step down from his post on 31st July, after a career spanning almost 30 years at the national carrier and a three-year tenure as the CEO. Having been a harsh critic of the airline at some times, I thought that this would be the right opportunity to have a look at how SriLankan has changed in the past few years.

One of my most popular articles on SriLankan has been “Lost in Time“, an article that I wrote in 2009, suggesting what SriLankan should do to become a successful airline. During the two years from then to now, SriLankan has made much progress and transformed itself on many fronts. Let’s analyse what the airline has done compared to what I suggested via the article back then.

Network

A factor that I highlighted in Lost in Time was that the airline had considerably slashed its network – which I believed at the time to be too much, and more than what was necessary.

In comparison to the situation in July 2009 then, SriLankan’s fleet and frequencies to select destinations have increased as follows, now.

Fleet : From 12 to 19
Freighter services : Still remains fully suspended
Indian flights : From 46 weekly to 66 weekly
Singapore, SIN flights : From 7 to 10
Kuala Lumpur, KUL flights : From 7 to 10
Dubai, DXB flights : Remains at 7
Kuwait, KWI flights : Remains at 7
Tokyo, NRT flights : From 2 to 3
Paris, CDG flights : Remains at 3, de-linked with FCO. Further increases to 4 weekly, from Winter
Thiruvananthapuram, TRV flights : Remains at 7
Bengalaru, BLR flights : From 4 to 7

Let’s have a deeper look into this. The airline has well recovered what it lost and now has its network at strong level – strong enough to improve tourist arrivals to the country with its newly dawned peace. The Indian flights could be expanded further, but will need a cautious approach than what would have been possible in 2009. The Indian aviation market has considerably changed compared to what it was in 2009, with new Indian LCCs such as SpiceJet and IndiGo now spreading their wings internationally. In fact, it will not be surprising if the airline has to slash more flights and more creatively organize its Indian network because its main transit business of connecting South Asia with the world will soon face a challenge from these new LCC’s entering the international markets.

The flights to Dubai and Kuwait remain at the 2009 levels, however this has been more than compensated with the additional flights into these cities launched by SriLankan’s sister carrier Mihin Lanka (Note: Mihin Lanka is a low cost carrier also owned by the government of Sri Lanka). SriLankan will add two extra through flights via Dubai in September, when it launches flights to Moscow.

The airline’s flights to Tokyo Narita remain at the same level, even though the airline has been allocated an extra fourth weekly slot at the airport. However, this is very satisfactory given that Japan is yet to recover from the devastating earthquake it experienced earlier this year and considering that most airlines have considerably reduced their flights to Japan.

Some of the other suggestions that I made were about adding more destinations to the network. This was not only owing to the fact that it will significantly help SriLankan’s transit business, but also because of the fact that SriLankan had a workforce too large for an airline of its size – and layoffs were not an option, making the expansion a must. The changes that I suggested were as follows, with the changes implemented by the airline listed in italic

London, LHR – up to twice daily from current 12 weekly. Increased to 13 weekly, with a 14th weekly service on the pipeline
Singapore, SIN & Kuala Lumpur, KUL – relaunch of the twice daily triangular flights. Done.
Paris, CDG – to be delinked from FCO. Two weekly flights to be operated nonstop with one going via MLE. To be operated solely by A330s. Done. Three weekly flights and growing.
Rome, FCO – to be relaunched as UL585/6 with twice weekly flights continuing onwards to MXP. One weekly flight to be operated as UL583/4 on a CMB-MLE-FCO-MLE routing. Done. Three weekly flights operating as CMB-MXP-FCO-CMB.
Beijing, PEK – to be increased to five weekly flights with two new flights going via MLE on a CMB-MLE-PEK-MLE-CMB routing. Not done. But instead new flights to Guangzhou and Shanghai launched.
Kuwait, KWI – to be increased from 7 to 9 weekly with addition of two new nonstop twice weekly flights. Not done. Instead more flights added by Mihin Lanka.
Bangalore, BLR – to be increased from 4 weekly to daily using A321s and A320s. Done.
Bangkok, BKK – to be increased from 7 to 9 weekly with UL424/5 evening flight on days 4 and 6 using A330s. Done. Increased to 13 weekly with new through flights to Guangzhou and Shanghai.
Frankfurt, FRA – to be increased from 4 to 5 weekly flights. Done. Fifth weekly flight in effect from Winter.

I also suggested that the airline should expand into new destinations. Changes implemented by the airline are again listed in italic.

MAN ( Manchester ) – thrice weekly aboard A330s. The demand certainly is there. See the notes below.

SYD ( Sydney ) and MEL ( Melbourne ) – See the notes below – The largest Sri Lankan community outside Sri Lanka resides in Melbourne, but however the bilateral agreement between Sri Lanka and Australia calls for four weekly flights to be in place once an air service is launched between the two countries, since the yield to MEL cannot justify four weekly flights, the flights would be launched in the following manner.
UL678/9 CMB-SYD-CMB 0500-2000-2120-0330+1 1,4 332
UL666/7 CMB-MEL-SYD-CMB 0255-1730-1835-2000-2120-0330+1 2,6 332
All times local
HYD ( Hyderabad ) – Should be relaunched with four weekly A320 flights. Not done. See the notes below.
COK ( Cochin ) – Should be relaunched with four weekly A320 flights. Done. Daily flights.
CGK ( Jakarta ) – Twice weekly A321 flights. Not done. Instead, Mihin Lanka has launched this route.
KTM ( Kathmandu ) – Thrice weekly A320 flights. Not done.
ISB ( Islamabad ) – Twice weekly A320 flights via BOM. Not done.
ZRH ( Zurich ) – ZRH will be launched with initially twice weekly flights on CMB-MLE-ZRH-MLE-CMB route and once weekly nonstop CMB-ZRH-CMB using A330s. Done. Twice weekly, same routing as suggested with each twice weekly one way.
MXP ( Milan ) – Twice weekly CMB-FCO-MXP-CMB as mentioned above. Done. Thrice weekly.

If I wrote that article today, I probably will not suggest launching flights to either Manchester or Australia, as both of these markets are now over-saturated with airlines vying for a share of the transit traffic. In the present situation, SriLankan will face a commercial suicide in trying to make these routes work. The flights to Hyderabad also may probably no longer become a succesful venture given the considerable boost in international operations that Hyderabad has received. Due to the lack of O&D/VFR traffic between HYD and CMB, SriLankan will have to rely on transit traffic whenever they try to make the Hyderabad route work. The routes to Kathmandu and Islamabad still have a chance to work, albeit with a smaller aircraft such as the Airbus A319 or the Bombardier CSeries.

With regards to the airline’s fleet, I suggested

I would suggest UL to add 2 A330-200s, two A321-200s and two DHC 6 Twin Otter aircraft along with an A310 freighter. The A321s will be used for regional travel and the Twin Otters will be used to relaunch its highly popular domestic tourist flights. The favorable lease terms in the market right now will help reap the harvest of this essential investment.
The Business Class on certain A340s and A330s should be refurbished with the installation of 18 flat bed seats.

The airline seems to have followed much of this, having added an A330-200, an A340-300, more A320s, including its first brand new A320 in a decade, and two DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft to its fleet. SriLankan has also not only made sure to add wide-body aircraft with flat-bed seats but is also planning to refurbish its A330 fleet with, exactly 18 flat beds in the Business Class.

SriLankan has a great team of smart employees, and it might be a pure coincidence that the airline has opted to follow a majority of the measures that I suggested. Nevertheless, I am very happy and honoured that they did!

The airline, under Mr. Manoj’s management, first recorded a loss of USD99m as it embarked on its turnaround programme – which attracted a lot of criticism – however now seems to have very successfully curtailed the losses, and positioned itself for the future, making clear that Mr. Manoj’s turnaround plan in fact was timely, correct and essential. It should also be noted that the losses the airline incurred were no surprise given that it was amid a turnaround plan and had to expand its fleet on its own finances, unlike its sister carrier Mihin Lanka which did receive state support for expanding its fleet.

The turnaround it has achieved so far without any lay-offs is remarkable given that it has a very high ‘employees per aircraft’ ratio compared to the global average of 100-125. However, all is not done yet. I would suggest the airline take the following steps for its future growth..

Fleet

SriLankan should consider placing orders for either the Airbus A350 or the Boeing 787. It will obviously be ( and should be ) one of these aircraft that will dominate the future wide-body fleet of SriLankan. While the Airbus A350, as an aircraft on paper, is presently lagging behind the Boeing 787 – in particular the proposed Boeing 787-10 – in terms of performance, it is unlikely that the they will have a considerable difference in performance when in service. Hence my suggestion is that SriLankan should decide on either of these aircraft largely depending on the deal that they receive. However it is extremely important that the airline makes this decision sooner rather than later, as the delivery slots in the near future are running out very fast. This will make SriLankan find itself in a disadvantage over its competitors who will be flying vastly fuel efficient Boeing 787s, Airbus A320neos and Bombardier CSeries in a few years compared to its ageing Airbus A330 and A340 fleets.

However, if the airline will not be receiving any external financial support for the purchases and might need to lease all the aircraft, it will inevitably have to stick for the Airbus A350. On the other hand, if the airline is considering placing a direct order, the option of switching to a fleet of Boeing 787 and the proposed Boeing 797, at the cost of crew re-training borne by Boeing, should not be ruled out either. In my opinion, the 787 should fit SriLankan better in the longer term, as its smaller size will enable the airline to build a frequency based competitive answer to the Middle East airlines that are increasingly stealing it’s traffic.

The airline should also consider the newly evolving Bombardier CSeries as a viable tool for it to establish a strong regional presence.

VISION

In an ideal world, my vision for SriLankan’s future is for UL to become an airline offering high frequency smaller aircraft (read: 787) services to a network spanning all the corners of the globe, and build a sizeable transit business. This is certainly doable and will enable Colombo to make true its long-held dream of becoming an aviation hub. The concept revolves around the future evolution of the hub and spoke system and will transform UL into a premium carrier offering competitive connectivity options.

If the presently talked about aircraft programs successfully go through,  SriLankan’s future fleet could focus around the Boeing 787-9 for long haul routes, the proposed Boeing 787-10 for its medium haul high density routes, the proposed 797 for short to medium haul flights and perhaps the Bombardier CSeries for building a strong regional presence. The airline might need to create a standardized product on its fleet. Ideally, this could mean that the 787s should have a 60″ pitch Flat bed on the Business Class and a 9 abreast Economy class seating. The 797 could work with a 40-43″ pitch Business class seat and the CSeries with a 37-40″ pitch Business class seat resembling an offering similar to the European business class on most European legacy airlines. To make this dream real, SriLankan will first need to make a strong foundation of profitable routes that will enable it to spread its wings farther, by initially cross subsidizing the challenging new routes until they break-even. This will indeed provide Sri Lanka with a national carrier that they can be truly proud of both externally, and financially.

Having read my articles for a long time, SriLankan’s CEO Mr. Manoj Gunewardena recently sent me an email

..In fact it is almost two years since you posted your “epic” – 28 July 2009 when you posted “Lost in time- SriLankan Airlines”

I am glad that in hindsight yours and my ideas have been almost identical – you’d see that in many areas we have progressed on the lines you advocated..

.. I know that there’s lot left to do, I will support the business from wherever I am and I’d hope that you’d carry on your good work

I am humbled!

Mr. Manoj certainly has done a great job with turning around SriLankan. Three years is a short time span in the airline industry, and what he has been able to achieve in just three years has been remarkable – kudos Mr. Manoj! I wish him and SriLankan the best of luck for their future endeavours.

You can find more information about SriLankan, here. An up to date fleet listing of the airline is available here

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review

The destination that I kept under the wraps has now been revealed by the airline. It is, ZURICH!

SriLankan Airlines will be resuming flights to Zurich, Switzerland, from 23rd December, 2011, after a six year hiatus.

SriLankan on its last flight to Zurich in 2005. Operated by 4R-ALB.

The new flights will be initially operating twice weekly, via Malé in the Maldives.

Schedule:

The airline plans to operate its new configuration wide-body aircraft with flat bed seats and AVOD on board, on the route.

More info on the new route could be found in my post at The Networker.

Zurich, albeit somewhat low yielding, has been one of the favourite destinations of most SriLankan Airlines’ customers and is home to one of the largest ethnic Sri Lankan communities.

Originally posted on Airline Industry Review