Countries around the world are drawing up plans to ramp up tourism. For many countries tourism is an important part of the economy. For countries looking to encourage tourism in the coming months, the challenge is how to do so responsibly without creating…
SriLankan
After losing hundreds of millions of dollars over the past several years, SriLankan Airlines has been working on shrinking their way into profitability, or at least has worked on minimizing losses. Well, now Sri Lanka's government is asking the airline…
I've passed through Colombo Airport more times than I can count, and in general have had decent experiences. It's by no means a great airport, but I've never had an awful experience. So there's a first time for everything. We got to Colombo Airport around…
I had only ever flown SriLankan's A330-300 business class on the very short flight from Colombo to Male, so was looking forward to seeing how their long haul product compared. We boarded through the forward door, and turned right into the business class…
Hello from Abu Dhabi! After spending a great week in Sri Lanka, it was time to fly home the long way from Colombo to Abu Dhabi in SriLankan business class, and then Abu Dhabi to Amsterdam to New York in KLM business class (this was a discounted paid…
Hello from Colombo! After flying from Dallas to Tokyo Narita in Japan Airlines 787 business class, we connected the next day to SriLankan Airlines A330 business class to Colombo. We booked this flight for 40,000 AAdvantage miles per person one-way, which…
Several years ago, Korean Air made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Korean Air executive Heather Cho was served macadamia nuts on a first class flight from New York to Seoul Incheon. These were served to her in a plastic bag, rather than in a ramekin.…
I was thrilled to read the news that Steph has joined the OMAAT family this week. Her guest post on her stressful experience at China Eastern check-in was my favourite guest blog post. I kept imagining myself in that situation -- it's like an escape…
Not only is Sri Lanka a beautiful country, but some of the world's best premium cabin fares are published out of Colombo, so it's an airport I pass through quite often in order to take advantage of great fares. While the airport isn't especially nice,…
"National" airlines can represent both a huge opportunity and challenge for developing countries. Under the right conditions, these airlines can turn profits while also helping to contribute to the infrastructure of a country. Take Air Astana, for example,…
Oh man. The SriLankan Airlines Airbus A330 flight from Frankfurt to Colombo this past Friday, UL554, was delayed by about 15 hours. It was scheduled to depart at around 3PM and land at around 5AM, though ended up leaving the following morning at 6AM,…
Oneworld member SriLankan Airlines is going through a really tough time right now. They recently leased more than half of their new A330-300 fleet to Pakistan at breakeven prices just to reduce their heavy losses. Sadly, this came at a high cost: SriLankan…
I can't even begin to explain how excited I was to fly SriLankan's brand new A330-300, which features their new reverse herringbone seats. SriLankan has a total of five of these planes on order. Since this flight was being operated by an A330, there…
Have you always dreamed of running an airline? Well, here's your chance... sort of. SriLankan Airlines has a job posting for Chief Executive Officer on their website. Here's the description: This comes after SriLankan Airlines' former CEO suddenly resigned…
I made it to Colombo shortly before 11PM, and had a roughly 90 minute connection before my flight to Male. Since my connection was on a separate ticket, my first priority was finding the transit desk so that I could have my boarding pass issued. We arrived…
As soon as we arrived at the gate the passengers terminating their travels in Bangkok deplaned. A vast majority of passengers seemed to get off, including the one other business class passenger. Interestingly the pilots seated across from me stayed on.…
I was quite looking forward to flying SriLankan again. I had flown them a handful of times several years back, so was curious to see how this experience compared, now that they've joined oneworld. That being said, I was slightly less excited about having…
Hello from the Maldives (more on that later!) Over the weekend I flew from New York to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific, and then from Hong Kong to Bangkok to Colombo to Male on SriLankan. To say that it was a long travel day would be the understatement of…
As you guys know I'm presently enroute to the Maldives, and planning my outbound flight was a bit of a last minute ordeal. I had originally asked you guys which option you think I should take on the outbound. Then I had a schedule conflict come up, which…
SriLankan Airlines joined the oneworld alliance a little under a year ago, which was an exciting development. I've flown SriLankan several times before they joined the oneworld alliance, and really enjoyed my flights on them. While they don't have the…
