Sri Lankan airlines issues Request for Proposal to lease of 21 aircrafts

State-run Sri Lankan Airlines has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to lease up to 21 aircraft by 2025 to support its business strategy as the airline is planning to grow its business in the next three years through frequency increases and new destinations are also getting added as international travel is in a trajectory of recovery from the pandemic.

For their business plan, the airlines also need a 35-aircraft-strong fleet by 2025, Daily Mirror reported.

Currently, Sri Lankan airlines is having 24 aircraft to operate to 40 destinations in 25 countries and aims to increase its fleet from 24 to 35 by 2025, including the lease replacement aircraft when aircraft leases expire.

"This includes two RFPs covering existing fleet types (320 and 330 family aircraft) and two parallel RFPs to compare with alternative aircraft types. Roughly 60 per cent of the planned aircraft will be for fleet replacement, and the remainder will be to support the airline's expansion strategy and meet the growing demand for air travel between Sri Lanka and the world," Daily Mirror reported citing the airlines' statement. The statement further read that before the pandemic, in 2019, Sri Lanka had an all-Airbus fleet of 27 wide and narrow-bodied aircraft to service its short and long-haul operations and during Covid, there were no replacements for three aircraft that left the fleet.

Sri Lankan Airlines was launched in 1979. The airline's hub is located at Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo providing connections to its global network (including codeshare partners) of 126 destinations in 60 countries around the world. The Airline operates an all-Airbus fleet including a state-of-the-art A330-300 and modern A320/321neo aircraft, according to Daily Mirror.