note

Air Lanka was national airline of Sri Lanka. It was formed to replace defunct Air Ceylon which failed in March 1978. Air Lanka started operations using Boeing 707s leased from Singapore Airlines. In 1980 Boeing 737s and Lockheed L-1011 Tristars were delivered. Tristars entered service on Colombo - Paris route in November 1980 and became backbone of the fleet well into 1990s. In 1994 Air Lanka became first airline in Asia to use Airbus A340 aircraft. Air Lanka served cities in the Gulf region, London, Paris, Rome, Zurich, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Vienna in Europe. Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok were served in Southeast Asia as well as Male, Trichy, Madras, Mumbai and Delhi in India. In 1998, Emirates of Dubai took interest in Air Lanka and airline which was, up until then, owned by the Government of Sri Lanka was privatized. To mark beginning of new era, airline was rebranded to Srilankan in fall of 1999. Emirates owns 40% of Air Lanka and secured contract to manage the airline for 10 years.

founded - demised (age)

January 10 1979 - October 1999  (20)

headquarters

, Colombo

web

base airports

VCBI Bandarnaike (Katunayake) International Colombo

related operators

Air Ceylon	predecessor
Air Lanka	successor
Emirates	40% stake