Photo by Victor Alexander .

Aircraft Details
Current registration : 4R-MRB
First flight : 23/02/1999
Serial number : MSN 977
First delivery : 23/04/1999 as A7-ABU to Qatar Airways
Service History : Qatar Airways as A7-ABU, Air Deccan as VT-ADZ ( Since 2004 )
Aircraft Age : 10yrs

Mihin Lanka, launched by and named after the Sri Lankan President, has so far been largely unprofitable but expects to break even soon.Similar Posts:

• SriLankan takes delivery of an A320
• Mihin Lanka plans to start Kuwait flights
• SriLankan’s Re-fleeting Exercise
• Mihin Lanka receives First Aircraft, Postpones Launch
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What are the main inefficiencies of SriLankan ?

Over-staffing

SriLankan has a workforce of 6000 to serve a fleet of 12 aircraft . This means as much as 500 workers per aircraft whereas the industry standard is 100 workers per aircraft. This horrendous rate of overstaffing leads to an extremely low rate of labor productivity and is almost unaffordable for an airline of SriLankan’s scale.

Inefficient route network

I really respect SriLankan CEO Mr. Manoj as an expert and for trying to do his best for the airline. But I really do not understand why they keep creating more and more inefficient routes day by day.
Check these out:

SriLankan does not have 5th Freedom rights for any of the above intermediate sectors ( CDG-FCO, CDG-MXP, FRA-MXP ), this leaves the operation of these routes involving with high operating costs. Secondly, all of these routes are operated no more than twice weekly, which makes the flights less attractive for business and transit traffic. Third, you will be carrying your passengers some extra miles than they would originally need and pay for. On the other hand, passengers who want to fly to Milan will have to go to either Paris or Frankfurt and return. This will only help to increase the aircraft’s weight.

Unnecessary expenditure

Even while SriLankan is experiencing a $100m loss, the management has decided to change the airline’s uniform at a massive cost. Refreshing the brand is not a bad thing, but why would this become an unnecessary expenditure ?
1. There is no other rebranding effort being carried out
2. The airline is running on a loss and every single cent is important to keep the airline running
3. The airline’s previous uniform existed for 30 years and was almost an icon of the airline, just like the Singapore Airlines’ uniform. The change will include a colour change and this colour is representing the current government’s official colour. The new uniform is also believed replace the current Monara logo with the current government’s unofficial logo, the lotus. What actually happening is replacing the SriLankan uniform with Mihin Lanka’s uniform. This has received some well heated up criticism from the company’s employees.

A few dollar million loss is natural in airline industry and a $100 million loss is not rare either. But a $100 million loss for an airline of SriLankan’s scale – with just two owned aircraft and a fleet of 12 aircraft – is completely unacceptable.

What Will Happen ?

If the current course continues in this pace, SriLankan will soon run out of cash and will go under. The SriLankan government is in a cash strapped position and will not be able to bail SriLankan out. Emirates certainly will not spend a single cent to help SriLankan run a few extra days. The market is competitive and to stay afloat SriLankan needs to compete.

What Could be Done ?

SriLankan is an airline that is now 30 years old and in this time it has build quite a few strengths .

1. A Loyal and Captive Customer base
Thanks to an excellent service many customers tend to fly with SriLankan again and again and most SriLankans have a suprising loyalty at the airline.
2 . A Highly Trained Flight and Cabin Crew
SriLankan’s pilots are renowned to be the best of the class and SriLankan’s cabin crew has won a great reputation for their genuine smile – a factor that brought the airline many accolades including “The World’s Friendliest Cabin Crew” for many consecutive years.
3. Strong Other Businesses
a. Strong Technical Skills and MRO
SriLankan’s In-house engineering and maintenance unit is known to be highly skilled and has recently seen many new MRO contracts being handed from the likes of IndiGo and AirBlue.
b. Catering and Ground Handling
SriLankan has a profitable catering unit and it also is the sole airline catering provider at CMB. SriLankan is also the largest and dominant ground handler at CMB.
4. A Local Market Monopoly
Due to various political reasons, Sri Lanka has never allowed a single local player to enter the international passenger market and thankfully this has helped SriLankan to have a monopoly.
5. Low Labour Costs
Although SriLankan has a large workforce, being a third world country and one which has an extremely low wage rate, SriLankan enjoys substantially low labour costs. This will help SriLankan to have a very low ASK once they rightsize the workforce.

Strengths are Not Enough

Despite all these strengths and all the hard work that has been done to date, it is clear that SriLankan is not strong enough to weather the current storm. In this situation, SriLankan is in a much weaker position than many of its competitors.

SriLankan also experiences a lower yield on most of its routes due to a local market that has less business traffic ( although expected to significantly grow ) and a small premium cabin.

Losses keep mounting and SriLankan is not likely to recover from this downward spiral. This will totally cripple the company’s future and causes serious doubts on how long it will survive.

The Turnaround

To come back to life, SriLankan needs to embark on a serious turnaround programme. The actions will be no less than very tough. SriLankan’s mission needs to be stay profitable and to have a sustainable continuous profitability.

We shall take a look at how to solve the three aforementioned key issues.

1. Overstaffing

It is likely that any Government of Sri Lanka will not allow SriLankan to lay off any of its staff. However, there are certain actions SriLankan can take to overcome this issue.
i. Expanding the airline
SriLankan should expand its network and fleet to an extent that fits the current workforce. This does not mean SriLankan should expand its network fivefold, but instead to a reasonable extent. In contrast to what some may say and think, this is a perfect time for an airline like SriLankan to expand. How to do this will be discussed shortly.
ii. Expanding the MRO
SriLankan’s MRO has a great potential to become the South Asia’s leading MRO . There are a number of LCCs and full fare carriers in the region that will need heavy maintenance in the coming years and this will be an excellent business opportunity for SriLankan.
iii. Adjusting the staff of foreign offices
SriLankan will be able to save some expenditure through negotiating the contracts of the staff in foreign stations and some possible lay offs. This will not be as hard as laying off Sri Lanka based staff.
iv. Laying off expatriate pilots
SriLankan currently employs 35 expatriate pilots although there are enough local pilots available. This has turned into an on-going battle between the airlines’ Pilots Guild and the management. It would be worth replacing the expatriates with locals at least to some extent as locals need lesser wages and less extra expenditure such as accommodation.

2. Inefficient network

SriLankan needs to identify the key markets that it can profit from and create a niche for itself. Currently SriLankan is engaged in a battle to win a share of Europe to South Asia/ South East Asia traffic without having any competitive onboard product. To compensate it, the management is reducing its rates on long-haul routes. On one hand SriLankan simply cannot compete with the likes of Emirates and Qatar Airways in UL’s current situation, on the other hand reducing rates will only harm SriLankan’s yields further.
SriLankan needs to find its niche and focus on building its network on it. I would suggest SriLankan to relinquish its previous plan of becoming the leading airline to South Asia. SriLankan should avoid directly competing with the Middle Eastern carriers, but SriLankan has a direct advantage in many markets and will be able to effectively compete with these carriers and gain a considerable market share. As we discussed in the strengths of SriLankan, its excellent onboard service is a key reason for many passengers, specially Indians, to fly with them instead of the Mid Eastern carriers.
Apart from this SriLankan needs to rationalize its network and sort out the current mess in its European network.
As I have mentioned earlier, SriLankan will certainly not be able to make a profit from flying routes such as CMB-CDG-MXP-CMB, CMB-CDG-FCO-CMB, CMB-FRA-MXP-CMB. As opposed to this, SriLankan should consider a network similar to the following.
CMB-CDG-CMB 3 weekly
CMB-FRA-CMB 3 weekly
CMB-FCO-MXP-CMB 2 weekly

This will not cause any reduction in frequencies or available seats and is achievable from the current fleet.

SriLankan should also launch tactical targeted campaigns to drive increased sales on its current network.

SriLankan needs to consider utilizing its A320 fleet to the maximum and launch increased frequencies to its regional network. In my opinion, slashing a half of its Indian network was not something they should have done as these markets will play an important part in the feeder base.

An overhaul of the current pricing and revenue management streams and strategies will be required to drive increased performance from the current network.

SriLankan should also seriously consider re-negotiating some of its codeshare deals, such as the one with Malaysia Airlines ( MAS ) which incurs long connecting times on certain flights.

A more detailed take on how SriLankan’s network should be shaped could be found here .

3. Unnecessary expenditure

SriLankan should completely stop all of its political vanity expenses. These will be of no use to the airline and it would benefit all the nation, the government and of course the management if the management instead opts to bring profits through better and strict financial management.
In SriLankan’s current state it would also be essential to renegotiate certain key supplier contracts and enforce quick reductions in most budgeted expenses.

Fleet

Apart from these efforts, SriLankan should consider maximizing the revenue from its fleet.
SriLankan should consider upgrading its business class product and increase the number of business class seats by at least 50% on selected widebody aircraft. There certainly is enough demand for this and it will help SriLankan immensely to increase the yield.
Although SriLankan needs to replace its long-haul fleet by 2013-4, there doesn’t seem to be any strategy towards it currently. The best choice would be using either the Boeing 787 or Airbus A350 to replace both A330s and A340s. However, with SriLankan’s current financial situation, it would be better for them to wait for sometime before making a large order.
It should also be a consideration to stop offering Airbus A340 aircraft for President’s official travel. Although the President might need an official aircraft for overseas travel and SriLankan has a responsibility as the national career to do so, the national career’s own financial stability should become the first priority at this moment. Any good government will agree with it and if the President still needs an official aircraft, the airline can offer one of the less utilized A320s.
However it will be well worth the investment if SriLankan could lease an A321 and use it to regional high density destinations as this will not only free up widebodies for the long-haul network but also help the airline achieve the maximum out of increasing tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka.
You can read more on how should SriLankan’s future fleet be shaped, here

Apart from these, SriLankan should consider the following actions as quick measures to be taken

Most of all, SriLankan MUST take the best use of the golden opportunity in front of them – the end of war and increased tourist arrivals coupled with capacity cuts by competitors – and achieve its true potential and the airline’s success.

SriLankan already has many strengths, the most valuable of all an excellent, skilled workforce, and it will not be a hard task to bring it back on to the track.
The management has already done some good steps such as moving headquarters from the Colombo World Trade Center to the airport premises, which should be appreciated.
But they will need a complete business turnaround plan and put it into effect quickly and completely. Tough and fast decisions will be needed, but they will bring a good effect at the end. The government should fully support the airline in achieving its financial goals and avoid it becoming another Air India story. If all the parties take interest in the airline’s succes, it certainly won’t be a hard task.

The full steps needed to bring an airline back to life cannot be written in an article like this. But I hope this gives a brief idea on which changes should take place.

This is solely my opinion . What should be changed or added ? Please leave your comments.
Similar Posts:

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British Airways will be launching its London City – New York JFK all business class flights on 29th September of this year, this article is an in-depth look on how this operation is prepared.

British Airways will use its brand new Airbus A318 for this flight. The aircraft, specially configured for steep approaches, was delivered to BA on 28th August. BA plans to begin services on 29th September.

The Flight
BA revived its Concorde flight numbers BA 001 – 004 for this operation, which is a signification of how important this flight is for the airline.

London City – New York JFK

BA001 1230 – 1715
BA003 1600 – 2045

The eastbound sector involves a fuel stop at Shannon, Ireland and takes 9h 45 mins. The stop at Shannon is not solely intended for range reasons, which will be covered to the end of this article.

New York JFK – London City

BA002 1840 – 0715+1
BA004 2210 – 1045+1

The westbound leg is operated nonstop to LCY. The flight takes 7h 35mins.

The Aircraft

BA will be using two A318 Elite aircraft, fully configured for Business Class .

Key Technical Details of the A318:

Airbus A318 is the smallest member of the Airbus A320 family and A318 Elite is the corporate model ( business jet ) of the aircraft type. By ordering the A318, BA became the second airline in the world to operate the complete Airbus A320 family, the other airline being Air France.

Steep Approach

Airbus A318 was certified for Steep Approaches in 2007. The trials were conducted at London City airport. But what really is called Steep Approach ?

The Steep Approach, in simple words, is a special method of landing. This enables the certified aircraft to land into the runway in a steeper slope than usual.
This makes the Steep Approach certified aircraft ideal for operation into mountainous or urban airports where a regular approach to the airport might not be possible.

The A318 is the largest commercial aircraft certified with Steep Approach capabilities. It is certified for a 5.5° approach slope, although it is believed to be able to achieve a 7.5° slope safely. The regular slope for a standard approach is 3°.

BA’s A318
BA took delivery of its first A318 Elite on 28th August, which arrived to London Gatwick airport ahead of final testing before put into commercial service.
The aircraft is the 4007th Airbus A320 family aircraft built and carries the British registration, G-EUNA.
The aircraft is fitted with 32 Business Class seats and also includes OnAir mobile connectivity system which will allow passengers to send and receive emails and text messages, which was tested during the delivery flight from Hambur Finkenwerder plant to London Gatwick. BA A318s are powered by CFM 56-5B engines.

Photo © David Kaminski-Morrow FlightGlobal

The A318 is fitted with an ‘Steep Approach Switch’ in the overhead panel of the cockpit. According to Flight Global, this slot is usually reserved for ‘N1′ mode thrust-control switch on IAE V2500 powered A320s, but is free on the A318 because V2500 is not available for this type.

The A318 Elite is already certified for 180min ETOPS operations, but BA plans to add a fuselage auxiliary fuel tank, which will enable the aircraft to carry 3t of extra fuel. However, this will not be available at the launch of operations.

BA expects to receive its second A318 by October.

The Operation

BA selected London City airport as the origin for this flights as they consider it is the most easily accessible airport for businessmen in London and as the airport with easiest access to London’s business centres .
Once both aircraft are in operation, BA will be operating 11 weekly flights between the two cities in both directions.
BA’s existing A320 crews can already fly the A318, thanks to Airbus’s common narrowbody type rating. However for the inaugural flights, BA will also be carrying an ETOPS experienced pilot for better safety.

Shannon Stop
BA’s A318 flights will originate from London City, but the same will not apply to BA’s crew who will be originating from London Heathrow. BA considered establishing a reporting station at LCY, but later gave up on the idea taking into consideration the complexity it will involve. Because the LHR-LCY transfer is considered as a sector too, BA’s crew will already have almost spent their duty time before they reach JFK. This will leave no room for the event of a diversion. Hence the aircraft will be making a technical stop at Shannon not only to refuel but also to take in a new crew who will then fly the aircraft to New York.
However, in the return leg a single crew will be operating the flight.

The Economical Perspective
All Business Class flights are nothing new, specially in the London – New York sector. Eos, MAXjet and SilverJet, all tried it, but none could succeed.
However, in all of the earlier cases, the aircraft used was essentially a widebody ( given that the Boeing 757 has a capacity of over 200 seats although the aircraft is single-aisle ) that needed more Business Class seats to be filled in order to make a profit.
The A318 is an aircraft with very good economics and filling 32 seats will also not be a much hard task. The flight is expected to cater more for the O&D traffic.
Someone might question whether a business person will go to LCY to take a flight that stops at Shannon. The answer is that, the passengers will be offered US Customs and Immigration clearance at Shannon while the aircraft is being refueled, which will make things much quicker for the passengers at JFK and will make this flight an excellent choice for business travellers.
However the economic feasibility and long term continuation of an all business class operation still remains to be seen. BA certainly is not in a good financial position and they will need to make this flight a successful one if they are to turn things better. Time will tell us, if they could. But one thing for sure, it will involve a lot of hard work .

It indeed is an steep approach.Similar Posts:

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Let’s start with an analysis of UL’s current fleet and the routes that they fly.

Airbus A340

4R-ADA – A340-300, MSN 032, first flown in 1994 and delivered to Air Lanka as original customer, along with ADB&C
4R-ADB – A340-300, MSN 033, first flown in 1994
4R-ADC – A340-300, MSN 034, first flown in 1994
4R-ADE – A340-300X, MSN 367, first flown in 2000 and delivered to AOM as F-GTUA
4R-ADF – A340-300X, MSN 374, first flown in 2000 and delivered to AOM as F-GTUB

Current A340 destinations : Bahrain, Bangkok, Chennai, Doha, Frankfurt, Kuala Lampur, London, Paris, Riyadh, Rome, Singapore, London.

Seating : ADA,B,C- 18C/295Y, ADE,F- 18C/296Y

Airbus A330

SriLankan originally ordered nine Airbus A330-200 aircraft from Airbus, the single largest aircraft order in its history, in 1998. Six of these were delivered by 2001, including 4R-ALE and 4R-ALF. But unfortunately both of ALE and ALF, the latest with less than a year on service, were brutally attacked by Tamil Tiger terrorists while on the ground and this caused both aircraft to be written off. With this, SriLankan had to cancel its remaining order and the next A330, already registered as 4R-ALG, was taken delivery by Emirates as A6-EAA ( Spirit of Birmingham ), along with the other two aircraft.

All aircraft are A330-200s and delivered originally to SriLankan Airlines

4R-ALA – MSN 303, Delivered on 26/10/1999
4R-ALB – MSN 306, Delivered on 15/11/1999
4R-ALC – MSN 311, Delivered on 10/12/1999
4R-ALD – MSN 313, Delivered on 12/01/2000 ( Ed – showing the true state of misery at SriLankan, I just realised that this aircraft is available for wet lease from SriLankan, which means their network is set to be reduced further )

A330 Destinations : Bangkok, Beijing, Dammam, Dubai, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Jeddah, Kuala Lampur, Kuwait, Malé, Singapore.

Seating : All – 12C/275Y

Airbus A320

By the time Emirates ended the management contract, UL had five A320s. But this is now down to three.

4R-ABE – MSN 169 Operated for Mihin Lanka, reportedly under a wet lease – but it is not known whether UL is paid for this.

4R-ABG – MSN 2908
4R-ABH – MSN 2914
4R-ABJ – MSN 2564
All three are leased and are ex- Air Deccan aircraft.

Seating: 20C/132Y

Destinations : Abu Dhabi, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Karachi, Malé, Mumbai, Trichy, Trivandrum

By analysing the routes these aircraft operate, we can see that none goes in excess of 12 hours ( with London being the longest ) . The largest aircraft is A340 which seats 314.

The most favourable aircraft that can be seen as a replacement to both A330 and A340 are the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350XWB. Both of these aircraft offer unmatched cost savings and both have the possibility of directly replacing both the A330 and A340. The 787 is a bit smaller sized than the A350 and thus would have been the perfectly suitable aircraft for UL, like I have suggested in my earlier articles. However, with SriLankan being an all Airbus operator and having a good experience with Rolls Royce engines, Airbus A350XWB emerges as the likely candidate for a fleet renewal. Nevertheless, since both of these aircraft will not have a much difference in economics it will not matter much whichever aircraft they choose. And the A350 will enable SriLankan to introduce a much needed Business Class refurbishment while still keeping the same capacity as previous aircraft, thanks to the bigger capacity it offers.

Fleet Renewal

I suggest a new Business Class, with lie-flat seat beds with a new IFE to be introduced onboard the new aircraft.

The A330-200s should be replaced by A350-800.

A350-800 has a range of 15400 km and seats up to 275 passengers in a three class layout. It can easily accomodate the current 287 passengers carried in the A330 while still having space for the new Business Class I have proposed. This aircraft with its range can not only serve all of current A330 destinations, but also open up new destinations that would have otherwise being impossible with A330’s economics.

Boeing 787-8 is the other most suitable aircraft with identical features although a little capacity sacrifice will be required.

The A340s should be replaced with A350-900. The A350-900 has a range of 15000 km and can seat about 314 passengers in a three class layout. Like with the A350-800, this aircraft can also seat as much or more than the current seating of the A340 while still having a newer Business Class and will also enable SriLankan to launch a nonstop flight to North America if they wish to, although the economic feasibility of such a route will be a question.

The other candidate for this replacement would be the Boeing 787-9, however it will again come with a capacity penalty.

However, it would be beneficial for SriLankan if they increased the Business Class seats on both types to at least 18 and 24 respectively. Configuring a few aircraft in different configurations is also an option however this should be done in a well managed manner otherwise this exercise would end up increasing costs for the airline.

Airbus A320s will not need any immediate replacement as these are relatively new aircraft. However SriLankan should seriously consider adding one or two Airbus A321s to its fleet as this would be a perfect aircraft for most of SriLankan’s regional routes. And SriLankan really needs to increase the utilization of its current A320 fleet which will enable them to serve around ten more weekly short haul flights without adding any new aircraft.

Whether SriLankan selects the 787 or the A350XWB, having a single fleet type will always come with benefits of lower maintenance costs and pilot and crew training. The better MTOW of these aircraft will also enable SriLankan to operate its daylight long haul sectors without the load penalty caused by the 3350m runway at Colombo.

The higher utilization rate of these aircraft will also enable UL to operate more flights with lesser aircraft required.

The higher resale value of these aircraft will make it a golden investment for UL.

If they order the aircraft now, the will probably get delivery of them in around 2016 which will be perfect for the replacement of both the A330 and A340.

As 2016 is still seven years away, I won’t go into detailing any routes they should launch with these aircraft. But some routes that are currently not served, but can be profitably served with these aircraft are as follows-

From Colombo,
Sydney (SYD)
Melbourne (MEL)
Milan (MXP)
Amsterdam (AMS)
Munich (MUC)
Shanghai (PVG)
Guangzhou (CAN)
Nairobi (NBO)
Lagos (LOS)
Ho Chi Minh City (SGN)

Although some of these destinations might deem unimportant, they will certainly be important if UL is to acquire these aircraft and mark its place firmly on the map. Specially important will be the links to NBO and LOS since connecting Africa with Far East is a business that UL can pioneer thanks to Colombo’s strategical location which is ideally placed between Africa and the Far East. I have some ideas to write an article on how UL’s future route network should be set up, which I will write depending on your response.

Do you think this fleet plan is good ? What should be added, or removed ? Please leave your comments.Similar Posts:

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SriLankan Airlines A330-200, 4R-ALD, MSN 313, selcal KQDP, is now available for ACMI or wet lease.

4R-ALD at Paris

An ACMI lease means the aircraft and crew, including aircraft maintenance, insurance and crew salaries, is provided by the lessor ( in this case, SriLankan ) for the aircraft to be operated for some other airline. Wet lease is essentially the same with lease periods from around one month to two years.

4R-ALD is currently the newest A330 in SriLankan’s fleet, although already over 9 years old. It is a fond memory to many, with its nickname “Asia’s Rising Star”. The aircraft is powered by Trent 772 engines and was originally delivered to SriLankan in year 2000. The aircraft is being used extensively throughout the network and dumping of this aircraft means AT LEAST 10 weekly flights will have to be cut.
I will not reveal information of the company doing the broker agreement since I do not want UL to lose further destinations.

Aircraft offered for ACMI lease by airlines is not uncommon, but an airline of SriLankan’s scale who has already sold half of its fleet and cut its network by more than 45%, cutting even more ?

Mr. Manoj, is this your so-called turnaround of SriLankan ?

Editors note – The demand at Colombo certainly is not so plump. The sole intention behind this sale is finding money. It is really saddening to notice what happening to once South Asia’s best airline.

UPDATE: Take a look at this article. He is saying he will never ever resign from the CEO post – is this the way a CEO is expected to behave ? Very disgraceful. But this certainly was inevitable and as you remember, we all saw this coming with the political push which led Mr. Peter Hill, an excellent CEO, being removed for a fault of the Sales Manager and that Sales Manager made CEO by government’s order. And Mr. Manoj accepts that the airline is in its worst ever financial crisis under his leadership, but can invest millions of rupees to change the airline’s uniforms to blue colour, which reflects the colour of current government. That really is shameless, dear executive. Revealing these facts certainly will arrest me, but I love my national airline and don’t want politics to ruin it.Similar Posts:

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Vueling Airlines ( IATA: VY ) flight 9127 developed a fire in one of its engines today ( 5th ) at Paris Orly airport.
The aircraft, an A320, had 168 passengers onboard when the incident occured in engine #2 while it was being pushed back for departure to Alicante.
8 passengers were reported to be injured while trying to escape through the emergency slides, mainly due to burns.
The aircraft is reported to have been equipped with CFM56 engines.
The incident is believed to be minor and I believe mainstream media should stop trying to consider this another Airbus fault since this could happen to any aircraft and CFM56 is a very proven engine.Similar Posts:

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The exit of Emirates from SriLankan saw the Chief Executive post being transferred from Peter Hill to Manoj Gunewardena, who is the brother of Presidential Advisor Sajin Vaas that drove the LCC Mihin Lanka to bankruptcy. Manoj however is a 25 year veteran with the airline having served in many positions and his takeover of the CEO post was seen as a natural progression by many. The new CEO launched a refleeting exercise for the narrowbody fleet and embarked a turnaround project for the airline to make the core operations profitable.
SriLankan Airlines Group, which consists of the airline, ground handling and SriLankan Catering, has most of the time being profitable, the core airline operations has not always been so and I fully agree with the Mr. Manoj in his belief that the airline should break even on its own – but should this come at the cost of cutting operations ?
To make the said operation profitability a reality – SriLankan did one thing majorly – CUTTING . From fleet to frequencies to onboard service and ontime performance, all are now in a lower level than they were while under EK management, however the reports for the last quarter is not out yet.

Indian Operations

© Sean D Silva

While under Peter Hill’s management, the airline was the largest foreign carrier into India, operating in excess of 110 weekly flights to 11 destinations – it is now down to a mere 46 to 6 destinations. Some quote this as a result owing to the fleet renewal – but in my opinion, it is NOT. SriLankan’s A320 fleet is now down to three from the previous five, but the aircraft can be much more utilized and the current fleet is well enough to operate daily flights to two to three more destinations under a 2.5h flying time.

New Destinations
The new management has so far launched one new destination – since they took over on 1st April 2008 – Rome . But not really a new flight though. The airline now uses Rome as a tag on to its Paris route, but on a rather inefficient routing, as CMB-CDG-FCO .
But the number of cancelled destinations outnumbers this single new route launch.

Codeshares

Prior to ceasing of the management contract, Emirates was UL’s biggest codeshare partner with flights to more than a dozen destinations including the US and the ceasing of management contract saw the end to this codeshare deal too. To fill the gaps, SriLankan soon joined with Etihad, which is now one of SriLankan’s biggest codeshare partners.
However, UL was still lacking access to the US and Australia under the Etihad deal and to void this hole, it entered into a codeshare deal with Malaysia Airlines. The deal took a long time to be completed since UPS, the express freight service based in US, fully opposed this deal as they were once not allowed by Malaysia to operate flights to Subang (IIRC). After so many appeals, MAS and UL however finally were allowed and UL now codeshares on MAS’s heavily loss making KUL-TPE-LAX flight. But has this been successful ? Definitely not.
As opposed to quick connections at Dubai with EK, now UL’s passengers have to wait for 7-8 hours at Kuala Lampur in order to connect to MAS’s flights and inspite of direct flights to US, now they have to experience two stops, which is also not on a so comfortable 777-200ER.

Frequent Flyer Programme
Yet another thing that UL lost with EK’s departure was Skywards, the frequent flyer programme the two had built since late 1990s. To replace this, SriLankan created FlySmiLes, a programme with identical tiers but lesser benefits and you have to manually redeem points by providing your boarding pass – long gone are the days of automatic Skywards miles.
The customer response has been very poor, with only 3% of previous Skywards customers signing up.
When asked about this by a local newspaper sometime ago, the management had however responded that “It took Emirates years to make their frequent flyer programme popular”.

CUTS
The highlight of this article – CUTS.

Fleet : From 16 to 12
Freighter services : Fully suspended
Indian flights : From 110 weekly to 46 weekly
SIN flights : From 14 to 7
KUL flights : From 14 to 7
DXB flights : From 14 to 7
KWI flights : From 9 to 7
NRT flights : From 3 to 2
CDG flights : From 5 to 3, and coupled with FCO
TRV flights : From 14 to 7
BLR flights : From 7 to 4
Flights to CCJ, COK, HYD, GOI and GAY fully suspended.

Notice that most of these cuts took place well before the global decline in demand. Nevertheless, most other airlines have increased flights to Colombo, specially following the end of war. A good example is Emirates, where it now operates 18 weekly flights from DXB instead of the previous 8 or 9 weekly flights.

The solution
The point of this article however was not to personally attack on anybody at SriLankan, but instead to discuss what can be and should be improved. SriLankan has a superb workforce which has done some unbelievable stuff – back in 2001, when the Tamil Tiger terrorists destroyed a half of its fleet, the engineers repaired the attacked aircraft in a suprising three months – which Airbus had estimated to take at least nine months and the airline has been through some of the worst crisis of recent times including, but not limited to SARS, the 2004 Tsunami and terrorist attacks. So they truly have the power to overcome all these and succeed . What can be done to can be done to achieve this ?

This is what I propose.
* Taking advantage of the newly dawn peace in Sri Lanka, UL should expand again and reinstate Colombo as a major hub and a gateway to South Asia. Its strategic geographical location and second-to-none tourist attractions will help make this a reality.

Fleet overhaul

©Thomas Ernst

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.
– SriLankan’s newly added narrowbodies should be good enough for a few more years and their widebody fleet ( of five A340s and four A330s ) should be replaced by either a mix of 787s or A350s, both of which have the capability to replace both A330 and A340 fleets. Since neither A350 nor 787 delivery slots are available till at least 2014, I believe that SriLankan should add more A330-200s to its fleet.
- One might argue that the A340s would be a better fit to SriLankan, but UL simply does not have that many routes to be used by an A340-500 or A340-600 and CMB’s runway is not lengthy enough to permit a fully laden A340-600 departure to LHR at noon hours too. Hence the only suitable aircraft would be A340-300. But since there simply is not much of a difference in terms of performance between A340-300 and A330-200 and because of a better resale value, the A330-200 emerges as the clear winner here.

Network
- I would suggest the following changes
LHR – up to twice daily from current 12 weekly
SIN & KUL – relaunch of the twice daily triangular flights
CDG – to be delinked from FCO. Two weekly flights to be operated nonstop with one going via MLE. To be operated solely by A330s.
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.
PEK – to be increased to five weekly flights with two new flights going via MLE on a CMB-MLE-PEK-MLE-CMB routing.
KWI – to be increased from 7 to 9 weekly with addition of two new nonstop twice weekly flights.
BLR – to be increased from 4 weekly to daily using A321s and A320s.
BKK – to be increased from 7 to 9 weekly with UL424/5 evening flight on days 4 and 6 using A330s.
FRA – to be increased from 4 to 5 weekly flights.

New destinations to be launched
MAN ( Manchester ) – thrice weekly aboard A330s. The demand certainly is there.
SYD ( Sydney ) and MEL ( Melbourne ) – 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.
COK ( Cochin ) – Should be relaunched with four weekly A320 flights.
CGK ( Jakarta ) – Twice weekly A321 flights.
KTM ( Kathmandu ) – Thrice weekly A320 flights.
ISB ( Islamabad ) – Twice weekly A320 flights via BOM
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.
MXP ( Milan ) – Twice weekly CMB-FCO-MXP-CMB as mentioned above.

SriLankan SkyChain Freighter network.
Although global freight market as a whole is not in a much good climate, the South Asian region appears to be less affected and thanks to CMB being a popular cargo port – UL will be able to make a sizeable presence on regional freight by capitalizing on these advantages. When the market returns to normal, these investments will reap back their harvest.
DXB ( Dubai ) – 2 weekly
TRV ( Trivandrum ) – weekly
MAA ( Chennai ) – 2 weekly
MLE ( Malé ) – 2 weekly
BKK ( Bangkok ) – 2 weekly
BLR ( Bangalore ) – weekly
SHJ ( Sharjah ) – weekly

Marketing
SriLankan needs to take its message to a wider audience and should make the best use of its website and social networks. They should also influence more Sri Lankans to fly by using innovative methods such as mobile advertising and enabling innovative methods to book flights – eg: using a bank centre.

The idea of this business plan is to make investment at the right time and to have become a leading player in the regional market by the time market recovers. This certainly can be done.
SriLankan already has a very high inflight service standard with a great crew which is sure set to make anyone want to fly again with them. But the above mentioned steps are not enough to make SriLankan a leader in the region again – the government shall stay away from the airline and let the management take independent decisions. They should not be afraid to try new things and should make the best use of CMB as a hub, although it is a long way to go – CMB certainly is a far better connecting point to South East Asia and Australia than DXB, AUH and DOH are.
Emirates sure did some good to SriLankan, but in many people’s belief – Emirates was benefited from the deal much more than tiny UL did. It is said that EK took away landing slots of UL at some major airports and it was a popular fact that they did not want UL to resume flights to Australia and some other destinations. It was also said that EK did not allow UL’s plan to purchase A321s for Indian routes. Now that SriLankan is free, they should nomore remain lost in time – SriLankan, now is the time for you to grow !

What do you think ?
Please leave a comment and let me know.Similar Posts:

• SriLankan Airlines Winter Update
• SriLankan Airlines Full Winter Schedule & Network
• SriLankan to Sell and Leaseback 3 A330s
• Air India : Keeping the Sinking Ship Afloat
• SriLankan Airlines Winter Update

This list is intended to direct you towards some of the most influential members of the worldwide aviation industry who tweet ( ie – use Twitter ) .
The list below will give you a quick bio and links to not only their Twitter profiles, but also to their website where appropriate.
Please keep in mind that this list is

not

written in any order.

Bio: B N Sullivan who runs AirCrewBuzz brings up to date news for air crews on Twitter.
link: AirCrewBuzz.com

Richard Branson

Bio: Not just an aviation industrialist, but equally important to aviation as well – Sir Richard Branson, the Chairman of Virgin Group is among aviators who use Twitter.

Airline Route Updates

Bio: An essential feed for any airline professional – Jim who runs the blog Airline Route Updates brings the latest up to the minute worldwide airline route & network changes on his Twitter feed.
link: Airline Route Updates blog

Jon Ostrower

Bio: Jon Ostrower runs the popular FlightBlogger – a blog on commercial aviation at Flight Global.
link: FlightBlogger blog

Tony Fernandes

Bio: The aviation legend of our times – Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia and probably the most successful airline CEO in Asia, is among the executives who often use Twitter.
link: Tony Fernandes CEO blog

Devesh Agarwal

Bio: Devesh runs BangaloreAviation.com, a blog focusing on Indian aviation with excellent industry views and analysis.
link: Bangalore Aviation

Boeing

Bio: Boeing Commercial Airplanes – but unfortunately for some reason, Boeing does not update their Twitter feed.
link: Boeing.com

Bombardier

Bio: A major player in the regional jet market – Bombardier puts its Twitter feed into good usage by offering latest company news to the followers.
link: Bombardier.com

Michael Targett

Bio: Michael is the Editor of leading aviation journal FlightGlobal.com
link: FlightGlobal.com

Airplane Geeks

Bio: Airplane Geeks produces one of the most popular aviation podcasts.
link: AirlineGeeks.com

Benet Wilson

Bio: Aviation Week’s Business Aerospace Writer. In her own words : “mother, aviation geek, traveler, quilter”.

Rockwell Collins

Bio: The proven aviation electronics and communications solution provider.
link: Rockwell Collins

Shashank Nigam

Bio: Author of SimpliFlying.com
link: SimpliFlying.com

Allan McArtor

Bio: Chairman, Airbus Americas.

Mary Kirby

Bio: Runs RunwayGirl, a blog at FlightGlobal.com . The second female to be featured on this list.
link: Runway Girl

Rob Mark

Bio: Rob is the guy behind JetWhine.com, and is also a pilot and a flight instructor.
link: JetWhine.com

Brett Snyder

Bio: Brett runs CrankyFlier, an airline consumer blog.
link: CrankyFlier.com

Heather Poole

Bio: Flight Attendant, and runs probably the world’s only female flight attendant blog.
link: HeatherPoole.com

FlyingWithFish

Bio: Travel Strategies Expert.
link: FlyingWithFish.com

Aviation Safety Network

Bio: The Twitter feed of Aviation Safety Network with up to minute aviation safety news.
link: AviationSafetyNetwork

David Brown

Bio: David runs The Airline Blog.
link: The Airline Blog

Victoria Moores

Bio: Victoria is a journalist for Flight International, Airline Business and ATI.

Oliver Gigacz

Bio: Oliver updates you with the latest A380 production information – never miss a beat !
link: A380Production.com

Gordon Vaughan

Bio: Aerospace Engineer turned into entrepreneur – tweets frequently on his take of the aviation stuff.
link: AeroGo

Ben Mutzabaugh

Bio: Ben runs Today In The Sky, an airline consumer blog on USAToday and a great travel news source .

Pan Am

Bio: Reminding you of the once world’s greatest airline .

787 Spotting

Bio: Follow them to stay updated on 787 movements.
And finally, someone unusual -
Air Koryo

The North Korean airline has also now begun to tweet .

I fully understand that this is not a complete list – but I’ve tried to include all popular aviation Twitter individuals and also have thrown in a few institutions for good measure. But I’m sure you know more people who should be added to this list, so feel free to leave a comment and let me know !
After all, I’m still 18 and you can help me learn !

You can also follow me on Twitter @kflyer and this blog @AirlineIndustry .Similar Posts:

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• How to use Twitter to Grow Your Airline’s Sales – Miyuru’s Guide
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A mini-submarine has been dispatched to try and find the flight data recorders.

UPDATE: As of 6/25, it was revealed that the signals were not from the recorders and the forces also reported that this was not the first time they heard such sounds. However, the bodies of the captain and a flight steward was recognized among around 50 bodies which has been recovered so far. It is still beleived that an explosion cannot be ruled out.Similar Posts:

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