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SriLankan
Airlines has achieved the distinction of being chosen by Airbus
Industrie as the most efficient operator of Airbus A330 aircraft
among all of the world’s airlines for the years 2002 and
2003, in the Small Fleet category of less than ten A330s.
The Operational Excellence Award recognizes SriLankan Airlines
A330 fleet for its consistent performance throughout the years
2002 and 2003, amongst all airlines that have A330s. The awards
are presented bi-annually in four categories. Korean Airlines
was the winner in the category of A330 Large Fleet. The winners
in other categories were Lufthansa (A340 large fleet), Lan Chile
(A340 Small Fleet).
Captain Dick Hutton, Chief Technical Officer of SriLankan, received
the award on behalf of the airline, at a glittering ceremony
at Airbus Industrie’s Technical Symposium in Athens, Greece
on the 16th of June.
“This is a great achievement for us, especially since
an award such as this has never been won by an airline in this
region. Airbus evaluated airlines on a number of strict criteria,
and this award indicates the degree of efficiency this airline
has achieved in the past five years,” said Capt. Hutton.
SriLankan Airlines has four Airbus A330 aircraft in its fleet,
which operate to Europe, the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent
and Southeast Asia.
“On behalf of the management of the airline, I extend
thanks to the airline personnel who made this significant achievement
possible,” added Capt. Hutton. “I really feel that
winning an award of this magnitude is the result of teamwork
by all of the airline’s operational and support services
departments. These includes Flight Operations, Airport Service,
Inflight Service, and many others which made significant contributions
to our on-time performance, to meet targets set by Schedules
Planning, and we have now been recognized as one of the world’s
foremost operators. With regard to the Engineering Department,
this shows the excellence of our managers and executives who
drew up various programmes to boost efficiency and on-time performance,
and the work of our hangar and line staff in implementing these
programmes.”
The awards are based on airline fleet performance data which
are computed according to a programme run by Airbus Industrie,
which takes into account annual average utilization per aircraft
in hours and cycles, and average delay duration.
The parameters are compared for each airline to the fleet average
and SriLankan was found to be the best, beating 25 other airlines
in this category. SriLankan’s A330 fleet operational reliability
averaged 99.06 during the period under consideration, with a
very high utilization level in terms of flight hours, flight
cycles and technical dispatch reliability.
“This excellent performance is a very good example of
team effort within our operational departments in technical
and flight operations, with a common goal to operate the fleet
safely and with good reliability,” said D.A.G. Jayasuriya,
Senior Manager Aircraft Engineering.
The period under consideration is especially significant as
the years 2002 and 2003 were the most crucial for the global
airline industry, directly following the September 11, 2001
attacks which left many larger carriers struggling to survive
on the brink of bankruptcy. SriLankan, which had already faced
the destruction of half its fleet in the July 2001 attack on
the Bandaranaike International Airport, embarked on an ambitious
growth plan that saw it rationalizing its route network, expanding
its aircraft fleet, launching services to many new destinations,
and increasing frequencies on many sectors.
SriLankan Airlines has won a string of awards in recent times,
which include Skytrax’s "Best Airline in Central
Asia and the Indian Subcontinent" for the fourth consecutive
year; Skytrax's "World's Friendliest Cabin Crew" award
in 2002; the TTG (Asia) "Best Airline in South Asia"
award; First Runner-Up in the Skytrax Best Cabin Staff"
award for 2003; Avion's "Best Inflight Entertainment"
award in 2003 for a fleet size of 20 or less; and Reise &
Preise magazine's "Best Airline" in the 2003 survey
of Economy class passengers.
With the launch of flights to Calicut this month, SriLankan
Airlines now flies to 42 destinations in 23 countries across
Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and has announced plans to
begin services to Beijing and several more Indian destinations.
It has been steadily expanding its services over the past two
years, launching services to Hyderabad, Kochi, Bangalore, Bodh
Gaya, Frankfurt and Karachi; and increasing frequencies to London,
Paris, Zurich, New Delhi, Male, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and Kuwait
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