RE: Sri Lankan Airlines

LAST EDITED ON 25-07-01 AT 07:40 PM (GMT)[p]LAST EDITED ON 25-07-01 AT 07:37 PM (GMT)

I flew Sri Lankan last year LHR/CMB/LHR. The flight out was on an a340 in the old Air Lanka livery. Comming back the aircraft made two returns to Colombo as the wheels would not retract (even after the first time when the plane went for tests in the hangar !). Our party spent the whole day at Colombo airport or circling round for 2 hours i think, dumping fuel. Eventually the flight was cancelled until the next day when another aircraft comming in from Japan was due. We were all put up in the Colombo Hilton (I think that has also been bombed) and left the next day without insidence.

You may think I would not fly on them again after that but I actually thought the service/food/leg room was good and much better than Virgin on the same aircraft type. Also Sri Lanka is a beautifull country I would love to return one-day when its safer. While i was there I enquired about domestic flights on the island but the Tamil Tigers disrupted this also. This is a shame as overland travel can be very long due to the road system and slow trains