This report is based on maximizing profit of airlines through practices of optimum use of fleet assignment, use of alliances and Utilization of limited resources.

1. Optimization of Flight schedule with Fleet Assignment of
Sri Lankan airline
TL3033
151419X
UPA Indunil
University of Moratuwa
MARCH 19, 2018

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Contents
1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................................................2
2. Current status ......................................................................................................................................................2
I. What type of network want to be created....................................................................................................2
II. Economic and cultural tie............................................................................................................................3
III. Type of markets to be served & Frequency & Time (slots)........................................................................3
IV. Adding new and dropping existing markets................................................................................................5
V. Pricing policies............................................................................................................................................6
VI. Level of service...........................................................................................................................................6
VII. Predicting competitors’ behaviors...............................................................................................................7
VIII. Fleet diversity (Types of Aircrafts).............................................................................................................7
IX. How to Protect hubs/Adding or changing hubs ..........................................................................................9
X. Adequate facilities at airports....................................................................................................................10
3. Flight schedule..................................................................................................................................................10
4. Alliance of Aviation..........................................................................................................................................11
I. One world alliance with Sri Lankan airlines.............................................................................................12
II. Code shares ...............................................................................................................................................14
5. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................15
6. References.........................................................................................................................................................15

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Introduction
Sri Lankan airlines has achieved an elegant development in past decades and become a loyal brand for world
market yet it has to go further more to higher levels of aviation industry. In this report will be discussed about the
what improvements should be done to go for better fleet planning and revenue management and gaining benefits of
Alliances
Current status
Sri Lankan airline is the only international airline owned by Sri Lankan government which have 27
airplanes fleet and Bandaranayke international airport and Maththala airports are at operations under
control of Sri Lanka airlines. Sri Lanka airlines is a legacy carrier which is also a Flag carrier of Sri
Lanka provide advanced service level and famous among passengers. Sri Lanka airlines fly to many
destinations from Sri Lanka covering Europe, Middle East, Oceana, Asia, and Africa. Large portion of
services are provided to tourists and Business travelers. The tourist attraction to the county has given lots
of business opportunities to Sri Lanka airlines and other airlines. Fly to 103 destinations after joined with
Oneworld alliances and direct flights nearly 36 destinations.
What type of network want to be created
Hub networks & point to point
SL is legacy carrier and provide alliance services (code sharing)
Sri Lanka is a destination for lot of air passengers, few flights fly over Sri Lanka such as Airlines which are
flying from south Asia to Europe. Sri Lankan airline is controlling Bandaranayke international airport as hub.
Establishment of hub was a biggest expansion of network after establishment of the hub SLA operates flights
more than 30 destinations in 20 countries. But there are disadvantages of hubs as spoke airport delays it is
effect the whole network and all of passengers and cargo must transfer through Hub then it makes high traffic
confection at hub
As a result of advantages, aircrafts are able to carry nearly full capacity with number of times in a day if
aircrafts are spent more time in the sky the more revenue they generate on the other hand scheduling of flights
are not that difficult because of few routes are operated.
But In south Asian region Low cost carriers are dominating the market with the large portion of low income
people live in Asia. They find full capacity flights for cheaper air tickets and making huge profit margins and
serve as point to point model. Immerging Requirement of hub services gain more profit to the country and

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make more efficient of movements that is the best way to compete with legacy carriers in Asian region rather
than moving to point to point model.
Economic and cultural tie
Economic ties
All of days in the year labours are flying between Middle East and Sri Lanka because high salaries are
provided in Middle East and recently labours are tend to travel highly to South Korea for the same reason
On the other hand as seasonally indicate higher demand for air travelling at Festal times and holidays.
Tourists who are flying to Maldives fly through Sri Lanka then that’s how Sri Lanka airlines has become
major international carrier for Maldives.
After take part of one world Alliance Sri Lanka could serve more destinations all over the world. Throughout
Bi-lateral agreements with other countries. Sri Lanka airlines gain more benefits economically and it is
essential for long existence in this unpredictable market.
Cultural ties
Multinational people live in Sri Lanka, they are willing to travel to pilgrimages and their festivals in other
countries. On the other hand Sri Lanka is a country which has a huge heritage and history of Buddhism which
spread over Asia. People are coming from different countries from India to explore the culture and practices
of Therawda budhisam. Sri Lanka is has a big culture diversity and natural environment which is very rear to
see in other countries therefore tourists are attracted to this country to have cross cultural experience
Therefore Sri Lanka airlines has achieved the opportunity to maintain a hub using cultural and economic
advantages.
Type of markets to be served & Frequency & Time (slots)
More than 40% of total air passengers are transported by Sri Lanka airlines annually. Existing market is distributed
among Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia, Oceana and East Africa (Seychelles)
Specially middle east has lot of destinations including Abu Dhabi, Doha, Dubai, Bahrain are Important markets
and Hubs for other major airline services therefore scheduling aircrafts an efficient manner is critical factor for Sri
Lankan airline because of high competition from other airlines. And as an airline always should try to provide
excellent service to grab the market, in other hand high amount of Sri Lankan employees are working these

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Countries it is better planing more flights to other countries in Middle East to grab the market according to demand
occurrence. As south Asian regional hub Airline Should go for more economic scope activities as the only
international airline serving for Maldives airline has an ability to add demanding prices and more value added
services.
Special care for loyal business travelers, attractive ticketing (family), and special seasonal pilgrimage times
should increase the frequency of flights.
Time slots should allocate in order to connect to departure flights, and free aircrafts should assign to
maintenance or checking according to the priority
Type of market segmenation
 Tourist- most of tourists are European region
 Foregone labours-Middle east
 Pilgrimage-Seasonal pilgrimage Travelers to different destinations as example Dambadiwa, Makkma,
etc.
 Recreational- events held in different places in the world such as sports’ world cups, tomorrow land
and etc.
 Business- most of Asian region countries
 Education- as example London, Melbourne
According to market needs and to gain maximum profit airline should plan the flights.
Source: Annual report of Sri Lankan Airline, 2017

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Adding new and dropping existing markets
Forecast existing markets and drop losing markets, add new profitable markets by analyzing demand for other
airlines might be the practical way but there is a huge mathematical area in the industry. Therefore computer
systems and expertise service is essential for highly fluctuating markets
Analyzing the past market share we can come to a conclusion which market will be profitable and what
should abandoned.
Source: Sri Lankan Airline website
Source: Annual report of Sri Lankan Airline, 2017

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Pricing policies
Pricing policies are based on operation costs of airlines the less operation cost the less fair and more customer
attraction. This is how gain revenue in aviation industry mainly yield management approximately 80% of
seats of airline cover cost of flight and rest is the profit for airlines there for airlines do many strategies to cost
reduction. Such as reducing working crews by handing over multi tasks for employees and computer systems
To reduce cost the better way is to using newer aircrafts because they are more fuel efficiency. It is less costly
than maintain older aircrafts. Sri Lankan airline have modern and sophisticated fleet.
Maintaining two classes are allowed to serve different income level customers and with demanded facilities.
There no First class or Premium economy class.
In above figures Sri Lanka airlines has gained more profit in recent years.
To manage revenue through seats airlines use 3 approaches
 Load factor-sell seats as many as possible, too many discounts
 Yield- ignore segmentation and focus on selling high value seats first fail to use multiple booking
classes
 Revenue per ASK-sell the right number seat at right fare level here use effectively multiple classes,
maximizes total revenue. At present aviation industry use this method.
Level of service
Business class and economy class, child care, entertainment, safe practices, catering service are few service
SLA provides to their customers further more
Source: Annual report of Sri Lankan Airline, 2017

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 Baggage allowance discounts for pre purchases
 Book now and pay later options
 Car rental or taxi deals facilities are available for passengers
 App for booking and check in and take off
 Chance of getting a business class by bidding via economy class ticket
 Unforgettable journey experience with Sri Lankan Airline
 Discounts of Air tickets and extra baggage allowance for Students
 Domestic Air Taxi service
 On Board experience with as you would do on the ground
 Duty free service
Predicting competitors’ behaviors
Type of markets competitors are serving, the demand at competitors markets and effect of competitors for
current market. These kind of details are important for planning fleet and scheduling aircraft for future
demand then when moving to new markets and looking for new business opportunities
As an example competitors are leaving First class seats and add more economy class seats to grab more
market share because if first class go with empty seats, no profit for airlines and Asia region there is a high
market for business travelers.
Fleet diversity (Types of Aircrafts)
Sri Lankan airline is equipped with 27 fleet of modern and sophisticated aircrafts which provide long haul
flights (A330) and medium haul flights (A320/A321)
A330-343 (4R-ALL/M/N/O/P/Q/R) 7 aircrafts
28 Business Class, 269 Economy Class
A330 - 243 (4R-ALA/B/C/D/H/J) 6 aircrafts
18 Business Class, 251 Economy Class (4R-ALA/B/C/D)
18 Business Class, 252 Economy Class (4R-ALH)
18 Business Class, 256 Economy Class (4R-ALJ)

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A320 - 232 (4R-ABL/MRE) 2 aircrafts
12 Business Class, 138 Economy Class
(4R-ABL)
12 Business Class, 150 Economy Class
(4R-MRE)
A320 - 214 (4R-ABM/N/O/P) 4 aircrafts
16 Business Class, 120 Economy Class
(4R-ABM/N/O/P)
Source: Sri Lankan Airline website
Source: Sri Lankan Airline website

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A321 - 231 (4R-ABQ/R/MRD) 3 aircrafts
16 Business Class, 153 Economy Class
(4R-ABQ/R)
12 Business Class, 188 Economy Class
(4R-MRD)
A320 NEO (4R-ANA/B) 2 aircrafts
12 Business Class, 138 Economy
A321 NEO (4R-ANC/D/E) 3 aircrafts
12 Business Class, 176 Economy
Airlines are Leaving First class Cabins and concentrated for Business class marketing with lot of
facilities due to difficulty in selling first class seats. Sri Lanka airlines provide only Business and
economic classes that’s a good management prediction. But as an immerging international airline. Sri
Lanka airlines require more Equipment’s and New aircrafts to fleer and good optimization of resources to
getting more profits in operation management.
How to Protect hubs/Adding or changing hubs
Alliance services, adequate facilities to ground handling maintenance and so on, efficiency of airport are lead
to reduction in travel time it make more easier with code sharing and interlining facilities between airlines.
Thousands of people are coming to hubs to transit or as destination that makes business opportunity for the
country and effect for the GDP as well as Industrial development around hubs because of connectivity to large
number of destinations. That’s why protecting a hub is important if the operation mentioned are in an
optimum level, hub will be protected and developed. In other words particular country take care of ground
handling services is benefitted from it, as follows
 Passenger Handling
 Ramp Operation
 Cargo operation
Bandaranayke International airport currently operated as the hub for SLA but there is a big opportunity to
Capitalize Maththala airport with adequate equipment and Crew to build as a major hub in south Asia region
with the geographical location and Existing land areas.

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Reduce distance of routes by serving nearest hub and Aircrafts are able to fly more frequently and with full of
capacity
Adequate facilities at airports.
Ground handling service are provided at airport when aircraft is on ground and parked at a terminal gate
Airside operations
 Cabin Service – ensure passengers comfort
 Catering – loading and unloading food and drink
 Ramp Service -Guiding aircraft to parking and provide equipment to maintenance including refueling and
so on
 Field Operation- dispatch aircraft, maintain communication with airline and air Traffic Control
Terminal operations
 Passenger Service- Provide check in counter services, gate services and staffing counters and lounges.
Ex: Ground handling Equipment, terminals, passenger loading bridges, maintaining and engineering crews,
fueling, runaways
Optimization of these limited Equipment and human resources an efficient way is critically important in the
airport
Flight schedule
Flight schedule should be matching with closer times between arrival flights and departure flights connecting all of
regions otherwise because of the huge delays at airports travelers would dissatisfied with the service at the same
time increase fares of flights there for it is essential to have a better connection and reliability between arrival and
departure flights and hospitality of the airport and shopping facilities and recreational activities may satisfied
delayed customers. That will increase the dropping satisfaction of loyal customers

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Alliance of Aviation
Alliance of aviation is a concept created between two or more airlines working to cooperate at substantial level in
term of gain revenue and long term wellness. Alliance may provide marketing brandings such as inter-airline code
share partnerships within different countries.
Mainly include long haul trips are provided between code share partners which and individual airline may not able
to reach but together they are able to provide long haul air travels with same ticket. In here the intermediate or 2nd
airline reserves particular seats for codeshare service provider and all baggage handling are done by airlines only
passenger shod move from one plane to another. In the interline service this baggage handling service provided for
air passengers.
This alliance services are only with legacy carrier airlines because this is more practical when hub and spoke
system is available. To reduce cost of airlines low cost carriers are using secondary not busy airports in order to
reduce cost and they not provide pre reservation services. Sri Lankan airline maintain Bandaranayke international
airport as a hub that how alliance services available for them and gain lot off benefits from the system.
Furthermore an extend network appear for alliance where they are able to provide services passengers form one
end of world to other end
Sharing helped to reduction of costs of Airline
 Sales offices
 Maintain facilities
Source: Annual report of Sri Lankan Airline, 2017

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 Operational facilities such as catering
 Operational staff as example ground handling at check in and boarding decks.
 Investment and purchases such as negotiations for volume discounts.
Travelers are also benefitted from Alliances
 More destinations with easy reach
 Lower prices due to lower operation cost.
 More departure times to choose on a given route.
 Shorter travel time
 Wide range of airport lounges shared with alliance members.
But the ability of an airline to join to an alliance might be restricted by lows and regulations of airlines. Some
countries considered about competition law issues.
One world alliance with Sri Lankan airlines
One world alliance is currently one of largest airline alliances in the world with 13 members. It was founded in
1999. Sri Lanka airline alliance with one world in 2014. One world achieved 17.8% of total scheduled traffic in
revenue passenger miles and it was the 3rd
largest one in 2015.
Members are as follows.
 (AA) American Airlines, founder
 (BA) British Airways, founder
 (CX) Cathay Pacific, founder
 (AY) Finnair, 1999
 (IB) Iberia Airlines, 1999
 (JL) Japan Airlines, 2007
 (LA/JJ) LATAM Chile, 2000/LATAM Brasil, 2014
 (MH) Malaysia Airlines, 2013
 (QF) Qantas, founder
 (QR) Qatar Airways, 2013
 (RJ) Royal Jordanian, 2007
 (UL) SriLankan Airlines, 2014
 (S7) S7 Airlines, 2010

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As an one world traveler every passenger’s FlySmiles states is recognized by all member airlines. Passengers are
eligible to many benefits according to oneworld tire levels.
Source: Sri Lankan airline website

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Highlighted benefits
Providing some 650 lounges across the globe
Fast track through security
With one world alliances of one world Colombo become an international hub and Sri Lanka airline serves as the
largest international airline for Moldives. Sri Lanka has a vast tourism industry more than 40% of this tourist come
to Sri Lanka on board SLA it was increased with new expansion. It will improve vastly connections with the rest of
the world. It will generate consumer additional revenue to SLA and help to add more flight to network of SLA
Code shares
At the beginning there were code shares agreements with Malaysian airline, FINNAIR and S7 airlines, this was
make even easier to customers to reach more places. This was one of biggest projects in aviation industry in Sri
Lanka. It has involved workers group covering and 20 streams of activities.
Currently SLA has code-shares services with more partners as follows
 Air Canada
 Alitalia
 Etihad airways
 Finnair
 Jetstar Asia Airways
 Malaysia Airlines

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 Myanmar Airways
 Omar Air
 Quatar Airways
With code-share flights SLA provides services 103 destinations in 48 countries I Europe, The Middle east, South
Asia, South East Asia and Far East and North that is the beauty of Alliance
Conclusion
To gain maximum profit is as a major goal of Airlines there should be a better network planning and schedule
along with fleet planning and optimum uses of limited resources available in the airports. Concept of hub and
Spoke network is a way better to increase the demand for air passengers with frequent flight and efficient flight
schedules, time is value for aviation industry. Alliances and agreements between airlines has made the network
expanded worldwide and long term wellbeing of highly fluctuating industry and to be more profitable.
References
 What is a hub airport and why should you want one? | CityMetric. 2018. What is a hub airport
and why should you want one? | CityMetric. [ONLINE] Available
at: https://www.citymetric.com/what-hub-airport-and-why-should-you-want-one-100. [Accessed
19 March 2018].
 Airline alliance - Wikipedia. 2018. Airline alliance - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available
at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_alliance. [Accessed 19 March 2018].
 SriLankan Airlines| Official Site. 2018. SriLankan Airlines| Official Site. [ONLINE] Available
at: https://www.srilankan.com. [Accessed 19 March 2018].
 RETHINK REVAMP - SriLankan Airlines
srilankan airlines annual report 2016/17 rethink...revamp airline centre, bandaranaike international
airport, katunayake, sri lanka. www.srilankan.com
https://www.srilankan.com/pdf/annual-report/SriLankan_Airlines...
 ˜e Skies are Clearing - SriLankan Airlines
SRL RLES ANNUAL REPORT 2015/16 1 Within an extremely challenging environment, SriLankan Airlines has
recorded commendable improvement in performance, across many
www.srilankan.com/pdf/annual-report/SriLankan_Airlines_Annual...
 SriLankan_Airlines_Annual_Report_2016-17_English
 SriLankan_Airlines_Annual_Report_2015-16_English
 Map of Srilankan airline network
 Lecture slides