SriLankan Airlines launches A330-300 service to London

SriLankan Airlines started operations with its newly acquired Airbus 330-300 with a non-stop service to London.

The first commercial flight on this aircraft UL505 departed from Katunayake at 0225 am (local time) on Sunday for London Heathrow airport and returned back to Colombo at 0440 am on Monday November 10.

In the last month the airline inducted brand new A330-300 aircraft, the first of seven such aircrafts on order. The airline inducted this aircraft in order to reduce costs, improve operational efficiency and provide customers a great flying experience.

A top official from SriLankan Airlines said that the airline has started commercial flights with its new Airbus 330-300 aircraft, with a view to deploy it on a number of medium and long-haul routes based on performance evaluation.

The airline has plans to deploy the new A330-300s primarily on Far-Eastern routes including Bangkok, Tokyo and Chinese cities of Canton and Beijing.

The official further said that the carrier will see a ramp up in its delivery programme with the arrival of our second A330-300 this December. The rest of the new A330-300s will be inducted in 2015 on mainstream long haul routes, replacing the older A340s.

The airline will induct new generation A350-900s to its fleet from mid 2016 which will eventually take over airline’s long haul routes and the A330-300s will consequently be deployed on the medium haul operations.

The carrier will start three weekly frequencies to Kunming in China from December 1. The airline also has plans to operate flights to Melbourne and Africa in 2015.