SriLankan Airlines’ flight schedule is undergoing several temporary changes, as the airline introduces new aircraft and retires four older ones in its narrow-body fleet. Two new Airbus A320 aircraft have already been acquired, the first of which arrived on 30 November, and the second due within this month. Two more are being actively sourced, and until they arrive the airline is temporarily suspending services to four of its less popular destinations - Calicut, Cochin, Coimbatore and Hyderabad from 15 January 2009 until the end of the winter season.

SriLankan will continue to serve all of the other destinations in its route network. The airline recently commenced operations to Rome to cater to the ethnic Sri Lankan community in Italy, and also to generate tourist traffic to Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

The two newly acquired aircraft will join the fleet after the painting of exteriors in SriLankan’s colours and livery later this month. This is being carried out by SriLankan Engineering at Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport.

In India, the airline continues to serve major destinations including its political capital New Delhi, commercial capital Mumbai, and its IT capital Bangalore. It will also maintain a major presence in Tamil Nadu, the state with closest links to Sri Lanka, through its 15 flights a week to Chennai, and daily flights to Trichy. All Southeast Asian and Far East destinations will remain unchanged.