Airbus Updates No.2450

SriLankan Airlines to retrofit oddball A330-200

SriLankan Airlines Airbus A330-200 © Tis Meyer / PlanePics.org

17.01.2020 - 04:05 UTC

SriLankan Airlines (UL, Colombo Int'l) will finally retrofit one of its seven A330-200s, 4R-ALS (msn 1008), in order to standardize its cabin in line with the rest of the carrier's A330-200 longhaul fleet, The Sunday Morning newspaper has reported.

"The seats have been ordered for the refurbishment of the cabin and we expect the seats to arrive in about four to five months. Once the seats arrive, we will immediately refurbish and fit the necessary seats, and then it will be operational for long-haul flights," Chief Executive Officer Vipula Gunatilleka said.

He added that the retrofit is expected to take place within the next six months.

SriLankan leased the 10.8-year-old widebody from AerCap in 2017 as a settlement in lieu of the cancellation of an order for four new A350-900s. However, as it is configured with 288 economy class seats (against the 251-256 on the other five A330-200s operated by the airline) and 42 business class seats (against 18 on the other aircraft), its usage has always been cumbersome for the airline.

"The former government agreed to unacceptable conditions when they cancelled the A350-900 deal and a condition of the deal was for us to pay a lump sum as well as to take over this aircraft. But it was taken over without the approval of the Engineering Department," Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation Prasanna Ranatunga said.

SriLankan Airlines sub-leased the aircraft to Hi Fly (5K, Beja) but took it back in October 2018. It was finally deployed into revenue service in mid-February 2019. However, due to its configuration, it has been used predominantly on regional and medium-haul services, primarily to Malé in the Maldives, India, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf, including Umrah flights to Jeddah. Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows the aircraft had often been grounded for extended periods during the year of operations for SriLankan.

According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, the aircraft's utilisation averaged just 2 hours 14 minutes per day between January and September 2019.

Besides the six A330-200s, SriLankan Airlines also operates five A320-200s, two A320-200neo, two A321-200s, four A321-200neo, and seven A330-300s.

Airbus Updates No.2056

SriLankan Airlines seeks to lease out "unsuitable" A330-200

SriLankan Airlines Airbus A330-200 © Tis Meyer / PlanePics.org

22.01.2019 - 17:49 UTC

SriLankan Airlines (UL, Colombo Int'l) said it will seek to sub-lease or charter one of its A330-200s, 4R-ALS (msn 1008), as this particular aircraft is "not suitable" for the airline's current business model.

"The cabin configuration of this aircraft, which was manufactured in 2009, is not suitable for SriLankan Airlines’ operations, having many seats and minimum space between seats in its Business Class cabin. The aircraft remains at Colombo Int'l as part of the SriLankan fleet, although it is not in use due to the above-mentioned reasons," the airline said in a statement.

SriLankan also confirmed it is currently using the Airbus widebody for spares and it has removed one of its Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines to use it for one of the active A330-200s.

The aircraft in question was added by SriLankan Airlines in 2017 as a part of a settlement with AerCap against the cancellation of the order of four new A350-900s. It was previously operated by Hi Fly (5K, Lisbon) as CS-TFZ. Following the 2017 transaction, the aircraft was never actually taken up by SriLankan and continued to be operated by the Portuguese ACMI/charter specialist through September 27, 2018. It was then repositioned to Colombo on October 3, 2018, and has remained grounded there since, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows.

SriLankan Airlines currently operates six A330-200s in active service. Each of them is equipped with 18 business class seats and 251-256 economy class seats. For comparison, 4R-ALS has 42 business class seats and 288 economy class seats.

Airbus Updates No.1612

 

Aircraft Type	Series	c/n	s/n	Registration	Airline	Remarks	ex Registration
Airbus A320	-214	7593		VP-BFE	Aeroflot	delivery 29apr17 XFW-SVO	ex D-AUBJ
Airbus A320	-214	7660		G-EZRD	easyjet	delivery 28apr17 XFW-LTN	ex D-AUBY
Airbus A321	-112	765		5Y-JZW	Jubba Airways Kenya	re-regd in svc 30apr-01may17 NBO-MGQ-HGA-DXB vv	ex UR-COJ
Airbus A321	-231	1366		LY-VEH	Avion Express	delivery 29apr17 AMM-MAN, 2-reg , prior Thomas Cook Airlines ops	ex 2-ATCD
Airbus A321	-231	1843		VP-BRS	Red Wings	EI-reg canx 21apr17, at MPL 26apr17 in full cs prior delivery	ex EI-FSU
Airbus A321	-231	1977		EP-ZGA	Zagros Air	air-test at THR 28apr17 after re-registration	ex UR-CPY
Airbus A321	-231	2055		EP-ZGB	Zagros Air	re-regd in svc 01may17 THR-KER-THR	ex UR-CQB
Airbus A321	-231	2211		YL-LCQ	smartLynx Airlines	in svc / posn 30apr17 RIX-HER-LGW on summer-lease to Thomas Cook Airlines	ex SE-RDN
Airbus A321	-211	2342		SP-HAW	Small Planet Polska	ferried 01may17 KTW-MST for paint	ex VP-BWP
Airbus A321	-211	2903		SP-HAX	Small Planet Polska	ferried 01may17 JED-GDN after winter-lease to Nesma Airlines	ex VP-BQR
Airbus A321	-211	2912		SP-HAY	Small Planet Polska	ferried 01may17 JED-KTW after winter-lease to Nesma Airlines	ex VP-BQS
Airbus A321	-211	7655		VN-A630	VietJetAir	delivery 28-29apr17 XFW-ALA-SGN	ex D-AVYL
Airbus A330	-223	874		TC-LNA	Turkish Airlines	ferried 28apr17 AYT-IST after storage	ex D-ALAA
Airbus A330	-223	939		TC-LNB	Turkish Airlines	ferried 27apr17 AYT-IST after storage	ex D-ALAB
Airbus A330	-243	1008		4R-ALS	Sri Lankan	ferried 29apr17 CBG-BRU, CS-reg after paint prior delivery	ex CS-TFZ
Airbus A330	-302	1783		N831NW	Delta Air Lines	delivery 29apr17 TLS-MSP	ex F-WWKA
Airbus A330	-243	1785		B-8951	Tibet Airlines	delivery 28apr17 TLS-LXA	ex F-WWKU
Airbus A330	-343	1786		B-8689	Air China	delivery 29apr17 TLS-TSN	ex F-WWYE
Airbus A340	-313	169		HB-JMK	Swiss International	ferried 27apr17 ZRH-EHTW, basic cs for part-out	ex OE-LAK
Airbus A340	-542	902		TC-CAN	Government of Turkey	first in svc 27apr17 IST-AYT-ESB	ex TC-TRK