It’s not very often you see A330s flying short haul flights. Well, SriLankan Airlines is an exeption. Of all 114 destinations Sri Lanka’s flag carrier flies, Mali Maldives is one of just a handful that the airline flies to with every aircraft type in their fleet, which included the A340-300 before it was retired in 2016. Additionally, their predicessor AirLanka flew the A300 and L’1011’ on this route for many many years!
This route is very heavily travelled as The Maldives is a top tropical destination, especially for snorkeling and scuba diving. As stands, the route is flown by 6 airlines with Emirates, FlyDubai, and Chongching Airlines operating the route as a 5th freedom flight!
Flight Information
Airline: SriLankan Airlines (UL)
Aircraft: Airbus A330-343
Registration: 4R-ALO
Departure Airport: Columbo – Bandaranaike Int’l Airport VCBI
Arrival Airport: Velana International Airport VRMM
Flight Time: 1hr 5mins
Altitude: 40,000 (FL400)
Speed: Mach 0.83
It’s easily one of my favorite things to do when traveling; departing from a remote stand! After a lovely 5 days exploring SriLanka, which fun fact, is the cinnamon capital of the globe, it’s time to continue our journey across the Indian Ocean to the Maldives which is 2nd on my bucketlist after Croatia of course! Today we are on 4R-ALO, a 2015 A330-300 that has been with UL it’s whole operational life!
Unfortunately, when we arrived to the aircraft on the bus, airstairs hadn’t yet been brought over due to staffing issues affecting all of Bandaranaike Airport. That was no bother for me as it gave me time to watch the action across the airport! I was able to spot some cool aircraft including my favorite 757 livery – Air Astana from Almaty!! Even though the flight was amazing, that 757 was the highlight of my day!
It wasn’t more than a 15 minute wait for airstairs, and once they arrived, boarding was expedisious! Soon we taxiied to runway 4 and took off very quick for an A330, which is known to not be the most powerful aircraft at any weight.
Banking west out of Columbo with Adam’s Peak (Sri Pada) saluting as goodbye!
Leveling off briefly at 40,000 as the drink service commences! The F/As were excellent on this flight and somehow served all 250 passengers in about 10 minutes! I decided to have OJ for this flight which was freshly squeezed and delicious!
On left base for runway 18 as we start traversing the airspace above the North Malé Atoll which is home the capital city!
Approaching about 150 ft agl as viewed from the cockpit of an Emirates B77W that one of my friends was captaining back to Dubai!
Vacating the runway after a not so butter landing due to a 20 knt crosswind.
Disembarking just in time to have a delicious seafood lunch and afternoon snorkel at the hotel!
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