Who is Suren?
Suren Ratwatte, FRAeS, is an accomplished pilot, airline executive and aviation researcher.
He became one of the world’s first Airbus A380 Captains, was previously SriLankan Airlines’ CEO and has also been featured in several books and academic publications.
Category: Industry
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SriLankan Airlines post-COVID. Does it have a future?
This is Part 1 of a two part interview with Counterpoint magazine. SriLankan Airlines continues to bleed money- who would care enough to make it stop? SriLankan Airlines Oct 25, 2020 Heavily unionized and long used as a playpen by politicians, the SriLankan Airlines Group has incurred a loss amounting to billions in rupees.…
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Where is the Airline Industry headed?
The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation held its annual summit (virtually) in Sydney, Australia last week. This writer spoke at the 2018 conference and was a panellist in 2019. By comparison, the 2020 affair was a shadow of its former glory. Despite the organisers’ best efforts to foster online chat rooms and virtual networking events,…
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The world’s longest scheduled flight
The world’s longest flight What’s the world’s longest flight? That is a matter of some dispute and the subject of a ‘pissing contest’ among some of the world’s most prominent airlines. Current claimants Before the worldwide COVID-19 shutdown Singapore Airlines had a tenuous claim for the ‘longest flight’ — the Changi to Newark (New Jersey,…
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No more overseas trips?
Is International travel at a standstill? Alan Joyce, CEO of Qantas Group one of the best performing airlines in the world, certainly seems to think so. Qantas has stated that the airline will make major changes as part of a ‘post-COVID’ recovery plan. This will include over 100 aircraft being grounded for up to 12…
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Has the mirage in the Persian Gulf come to an end?
The Great Cull begins The full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the airline industry is becoming apparent. With travel greatly restricted (if not impossible) since late March 2020, the airline industry has been in a tailspin. Many airlines have ceased to operate altogether or have initiated bankruptcy proceedings. Many more have suspended their employees,…
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The USA invents the airline
The birth of airlines in the USA The first non-stop trans-Atlantic flight actually took place in 1919 when two English flyers, John Alcock and Arthur Brown, flew a modified Vickers Vimy bomber from Newfoundland, Canada to County Galway, on the west coast of Ireland. While this won them both knighthoods and a handsome cash prize,…
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Pan Am
Pan American and flying boat era While the Big Four were connecting the continental USA from coast to coast, Juan Trippe and Lindbergh were concentrating on the overseas routes. They persuaded the US government to grant them a virtual monopoly on international routes and set out to build Pan Am into a giant airline. Their…
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Looking back to the roots – the start of the world’s airlines
Imperial Airways and the colonial airlines Europe in the 1920s was still reeling from the devastation of the Great War. With their treasuries emptied, a whole generation of youth dead or wounded, societies in turmoil and trust in leaders at an all time low, the governments of the day turned to aviation to try and…
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The Wright Brothers and the Miracle of Flight
How it all began 17 December 1903 is a date that changed the future of mankind. On that cold winter’s day, on a desolate beach in a little known corner of America two bicycle mechanics, Wilbur and Orville Wright, made the world’s first sustained and controlled flight in a powered heavier-than-air machine. To call the…
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End of the runway for my beloved A380?
The demise of the ‘Uber Plane’ In June 2019 this column asked “Who killed the A380?”. By then it was obvious that Airbus’s flagship was not a sales success, and its eventual demise was only a matter of time. However this writer predicted that the aircraft would probably fly on for ‘at least 15 years’.…
