Aviation & Airports

[Amal]

News about the country's airline!

SriLankan Airlines offers Indian, Pakistan carriers' third party maintenance checks

Aug 31, 2006 (LBO) – SriLankan Airlines is in talks with regional carriers from India, Pakistan and the Middle East to carry out third party maintenance checks on aircraft, top airline officials said.

The national carrier just successfully completed a multiple C check for an Emirates A330-200 aircraft, called the 4C5Y, usually carried out every five years.

The maintenance check, which involved all aspects of the aircraft like the airframe, avionics, engines, cabins and painting as well as other modifications, was the first carried out by SriLankan for another carrier.

"We have got interest for A320 C checks from airlines such as Airblue (Pakistan), Air Deccan (India), Kingfisher (India), Vietnam Airlines and a few start up airlines in the region," D A G Jayasuriya, Senior Manager Aircraft Engineering at SriLankan told LBO in an email interview.

"Also we expect there will be more A330/ A340, 4C checks from Emirates as well." Emirates own a 43.6 percent stake in SriLankan, alongside the government.

Aircraft maintenance checks are periodically done on all planes after a certain amount of time and usage.

Called A, B, C and D checks by airlines, A and B checks are lighter checks carried out every month or every few months. C and D are heavier checks that put aircraft out of service for a while.

Initial plans are to carry out two heavy 4-C checks and about four light C-checks in the first year of offering third party maintenance services, Jayasuriya said.

The airline can also offer A-check maintenance on Airbus A320, A330 and A340 aircraft, in addition to the checks done on SriLankan's own fleet of 14 Airbus aircraft.

"Based on market development we can ramp up our services in time to come. We can offer significantly greater number of A-checks to third parties," Jayasuriya said.

A C-check like the one done on Emirates could cost in the region of 0.9 to 1.2 million dollars.

"We feel our offering is very competitive and results in considerable savings to the customer airline, compared to offers from other parties in the region (such as Gamco Abu Dhabi or Haeco, Hong Kong)."

With profit margins in the region of 10-12 percent, the airline says it expects its third party maintenance services to be a significant contributor to airline revenues in the future.

"Our strategy is for SriLankan Engineering to provide maintenance services to airlines throughout Asia and beyond. Our aim is to develop this into a significant stream of additional revenue for the company, as well as being a major foreign exchange earner for the country," Peter Hill, SriLankans CEO said in a statement.

SriLankan presently operates to 49 destinations in 28 countries.

http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/f...&SEARCH_TERM=7

[sjinadasa]

SriLankan Airlines mulls future strategy as Emirates contract runs out

SINGAPORE, September 16, 2006 (LBO) – SriLankan Airlines plans to take ownership of three aircraft currently under lease and extend the lifespan on two others that come up for renewal next year, its chief financial officer said Saturday.

“We are in the last stages of paying up the lease on three aircraft, with two A340s coming into our ownership in October. Another A340 will be paid for in full next March,” Vipula Gunatilleka told LBO in an interview here.

The airline, which is 43.63 percent owned by Dubai’s Emirates, has a fleet comprising:
• Five Airbus A340s
• Four Airbus A330-200
• Five Airbus A320-200
• Two Antonov AN12F freighters
• Two Turbo Otters

The national carrier is also process of fine tuning its business plans for the coming year, to hedge against future oil spikes and other ongoing activities including the lease on two A320s that run out next February.

Much of the plans, however, depend on the government’s decision to extend Emirates’ contract when it runs out in 2008.

Both sides have had few rounds of discussions, with nothing firmed up yet. With a 51.05 percent equity stake, the government is not too keen that the national carrier enters into big business deals until talks on a technical partner are ironed out.

However, SriLankan has secured Board consent to extend the lease on the two A320s.

“The business does not end in 2008, the airline has to run….so we are in the process of negotiating terms to extend the lease for about two years, nothing’s finalized yet,” Gunatilleka said.

In the meantime, SriLankan is kept busy, looking at ways to be lean, mean and poised to remain profitable amidst historically high oil prices.

“We hedge around 76 percent of our fuel purchase, about 9.6 million gallons each month, through forward contracts. Despite that, we spent 92 million dollars on fuel from April-Aug this year, which is about 23 million dollars more than the same period last year.”

Jet fuel, he says, has eased up a bit lately, as crude prices cool off.

Gunatilleka laments that jet fuel has hit 2.20 dollars per gallon now, surpassing 1.78 dollars a gallon, they anticipated for this financial year.

“Prices have settled down a bit now, but it could go up to 2.50 dollars or even more, it all depends on no supply disruptions and no war like situation in the Middle East.”

A decision to team up with Emirates and secure discounts on ground handling, catering, insurance, aircraft financing, fuel hedging, code sharing and so forth, has trimmed about 3-4 percent off SriLankan’s costs.

Other cost savings, Gunatilleka says is coming from discarding non value added items like excess paper, operational manuals and switching to lightweight seat covers.

“A heavy plane drinks up a lot of fuel, and we constantly look for ways to reduce unnecessary weight.”

Passenger volumes have not been too great either, with SriLankan flying around 1.3 million people – up six percent – from April to August.

“We have seen a growth from Indian subcontinent, about 320,000 passengers, followed by the Far East around 290,000. Europe has dropped one percent to 175,000 mainly due renewed violence hitting headlines again.”

[nitzomoe]

Post pictures of Sri Lanka's airfields and Bandaranaike International Airport. Pls give credit if pictures are not yours.
pictures taken on Samsung D720 (pictures of airport still officially banned)

Interior central concourse


Exterior

[nitzomoe]

Bandaranaike Airport is one fo the few airports Ive seen that still has the old information boards:

[Bertez]

I love that old board.....hearing the board click away amdist all that chaos when checking in....

[sjinadasa]

Source : Flickr

[nitzomoe]

they are greatly expanding the departures hall and will refurbish the original one upon completion of the new one. WIll take pics when next there. Interesting fact: Emirates of Dubai currently flys 5 flights daily during the weekdays and 3 during the weekends through Colombo!

[lordvader]

Originally Posted by nitzomoe

they are greatly expanding the departures hall and will refurbish the original one upon completion of the new one.

Whens that due to be completed??

Also, are they redoing the drop off and pick up areas at the entrance??

[lordvader]

DELETE- double post

[sjinadasa]

The Corridors looks kinda small and bland. Need some more details and decorations. Still good progress from the 70's washed out look of the older parts.

[nitzomoe]

timeline is unknown. Dont noe bout the pick up drop off areas though the new arrivals sections seems like it could be large enough to reach the connecting road, plsu they have boared up much of the walkway that connects the arrivals/departures with the pick up/drop off sections.

[sjinadasa]

Sounds exciting. Maybe try and capture some photos will you ?

[lordvader]

He said the CIAL had received an invitation from Sri Lanka to assist the country in setting up its a new airport, which it plans to develop about 80 miles south of Colombo. He said besides providing consultancy service, the CIAL was also interested in investing in the project. A decision on this would be taken subject to the approval of the new Government and the Board of the Directors, Mr. Kurian said.

http://www.hindu.com/2006/05/19/stor...1901061900.htm

[Suncity]

Google Earth view of Colombo Airport - not sure how old this is - but looks like there is some construction going on

[Bertez]

That pier that is being constructed....well has been constructed. Those pics shown earlier in this page are of that pier

cool airport!! i think are small but ist diferent!

[sjinadasa]

The last time i was there, i saw some construction in the taxi-ways while the plane was taxing to the runway. And I also saw a picture which shows two runways in the airport, one without a connection to the piers. Maybe the new runway is completed ?

[Bertez]

This one??

[sjinadasa]

Is that the SL Airport ?

[Bertez]

From the Website that I got it from, they said it wus BIA, plus the ocean in the background looks very much like that in BIA....however, I am not so convinced that work has started on the 2nd runway....maybe someone else has more insight??