SriLankan to double fleet 2015 – More destinations, additional flights
SriLankan Airlines has drawn up a new five-year plan, which is targeted towards bringing the National Carrier to profitability while at the same time acting as the catalyst for growth.
“SriLankan Airlines has a well defined plan and is ready to deliver. With fleet expected to be doubled by 2015, SriLankan Airlines is geared to re-live its past glory”, SriLankan Airlines Chairman Nishantha Wickremasinghe said.
The Airline envisages a progressive increase in fleet size to cater to the projected growth of the country’s tourism industry. The first of these, another Airbus A330 with flatbed seating in Business Class, is expected in July.
The fleet will be replaced with near new and new A330 air craft that would facilitate network expansion. The new air craft will be utilized to reach new destinations.
The plan includes re-launching the domestic floatplane operation to utilize water-landing facilities, while closely supporting the Sri Lanka Air Forces land-based service Helitours.
SriLankan intends to increase its number of flights by 15 percent in the present financial year, and add a hundred more flights within the next four years.
There will be expansion plan on the cards and destinations such as Jakarta, Sydney, Far East, Europe, India and the Middle East both directly and through code-share partnerships with other international airlines, to widen its current global network of 49 destinations in 32 countries. The frequency in number of destinations will be increased including five weekly flights to Japan. With the introduction of three additional flights to Shanghai in July there will be daily flights to China.
The national carrier is confident of the local management team and will not be looking for any other partner. “No partnership is necessary and the management team has wide experience to steer the venture to become a profitable airline in the future”, the Chairman said.
SriLankan has also adopted a strategy of increasing seating and cargo capacity on all its sectors by converting them to non-stop operations, and progressively increasing frequencies as per market demand. This will result in capacity increases in 2010 to London, Paris, Frankfurt, Doha, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Muscat.
The airline is also strengthening its operations in off-line regions where there is significant demand for travel to Sri Lanka such as Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, USA and Canada.
The 43 percent Emirates stake was bought back by the Government to facilitate better decision making and to implement an accelerated development program.
The deal has been finalized after successful discussions and the price will be negotiated shortly.
Meanwhile, the commissioning of a new Flight Simulator at the BIA will support plans to turn Colombo into a regional hub for learning in the field of aviation, while at the same time providing priceless opportunities for young Sri Lankan men and women to be trained for careers in the airline industry.
(Source: Daily News – 10th June, 2010)