SriLankan Airlines launches new A330-300 with a non-stop service to London
View(s):SriLankan Airlines last week began commercial operations on its newly acquired Airbus 330-300 with a direct non-stop service to London.
SriLankan Airlines flight UL505 departed from Katunayake at 0225 am local time on Sunday en-route to London Heathrow airport, returning to Colombo the next day.
Pic shows the new A330-300 soon after take-off from London Heathrow,
The brand new A330-300, the first of seven such aircraft on order from Airbus was inducted to SriLankan’s fleet last month, launching its wide body fleet renewal and replacement programme with the aim of reducing costs, improving operational efficiencies and providing an enhanced product offering to customers. The airline said.
Chief Operations Officer, SriLankan Airlines Captain Druvi Perera said, “We have begun commercial flights with our new Airbus 330-300 aircraft, with a view to deploying it on a number of medium and long-haul routes as part of a performance evaluation process that is implemented by the airline for induction of new aircraft to its fleet.
The performance evaluation programme will continue for a period of three months during which the deployment of the aircraft on a particular route will be decided after an evaluation of passenger volumes, route yields, demand for Business Class, frequency and consistency of the product and the number of aircraft required to support the frequencies to a particular destination.
Captain Druvi Perera, Chief Operations Officer
“We will deploy the new A330-300s primarily on Far-Eastern routes including Bangkok, Tokyo and Chinese cities of Canton and Beijing.”
He said there will be a ramp up in the delivery programme with the arrival of the second A330-300 next month and the balance new A330-300s in 2015, with these aircraft to be assigned for mainstream long-haul operations, replacing the older A340s in the interim.
The airline release said the new aircraft has state- of-the- art cabin features that redefine the flying experience for passengers in both Business class and Economy class on SriLankan Airlines, introducing out-standing innovations in Inflight entertainment (IFE) systems with Thales Avant Audio-Video on Demand (AVOD) and Ambient lighting across both cabins, Wi-Fi Connectivity features and ultra comfort in seating.
SriLankan will commence thrice weekly frequencies to Kunming in China from December 01st with possible operations to Melbourne and Africa in 2015 under review.