SriLankan Airlines

Flew London Heathrow to Colombo in January 2015 our first time to Sri Lanka. We were really impressed with the whole experience of the flight the checking in the staff. A very comfortable flight with excellent food on both flights - we chose the SriLankan food options. Would certainly recommend this air line Flew 11th January to 25th January.

SL504 28th Dec and return SL505 on 6 Jan. The planes are old and filthy - no inflight videos poor service food served an hour before we landed at HTR toilet not working oxygen tanks changed by engineers whilst we were boarding the plane delayed. It is not fit for purpose and in no uncertain terms should be a member of the One World Alliance. It is an embarrassment to British Airways and the rest of the airlines which maintain good standards. I won't be using them again after travelling with them for almost 10 years.

For the seat I put 3 because on some flights the seats were excellent but some were almost like economy class seats where you are unable to lay down totally and rest your legs. My main concern here is the food. The choice of the food mainly focuses on SriLankan local food. As foreigner a Western food choice should be added. The other things are the toiletry set. I feel that one should be provided to on a flight of more than 3 hours. Lip balm and lotion also needed as the air in flight was very dry.

I recently flew on SriLankan's new A330-300 on Bangkok - Colombo and am highly impressed how they have improved over the last couple of years. The new aircraft's seats are very comfortable with an excellent in-flight entertainment and the aircraft also had in-flight Wi-Fi and mobile telephony options. The cabin crew were as friendly as usual and I would highly recommend the airline to anyone.

Fully deserves its 3 star rating judging by return flight on 4/2/15 Colombo to London. The ageing Airbus 320 plane interior clearly maintained like many SriLankan hotels! Some seats were recovered. Our reading lights did not work. My video did not work. But the cabin crew worked valiantly to restore power and partially succeeded. We were able to move to seats behind bulkhead for more leg room which was essential on 11 hour flight. Curiously legroom seemed 1-2 inches less in this plane than newer A320 on way out. Stewardess did not know but after initially ignoring our request she allowed us to change seats. Otherwise anyone over six foot or perhaps an inch or two less depending on leg length would be severely punished on this flight.

I bought a round-trip flight from Rome (Italy) to Male (Maldives) four legs (change in Colombo Sri Lanka). FCO-CMB: the seats immediately appeared old and not really clean. Each seat had a display which definition was extremely poor and despite the in-flight guide told that there were a couple of movies in Italian I didn't find them. I asked a cabin attendant and the answer was "I'm afraid that there are no movies in Italian". The available space was average enough comfortable and the food had a good taste. The only positive aspects: good to have metal cutlery and bar always opened. At the duty free they didn't have the cigarettes I asked for (even in the catalogue). CMB-MLE: short flight on a pretty new aircraft but the temperature was set extremely cold despite many passengers asked for increasing it no results. MLE-CMB: 1.5 hour delay trip acceptable. CMB-FCO: 5 hours of lately announced delay about 6 real hours until the effective departure time. Tens of passengers waiting for the opening of the waiting room sitting on a few chairs and on the floor (it was 5 am local time). They opened it about half an hour later that the announced boarding time. Again old-looking seats but better displays with movies in Italian. The displays however seemed not to be originally "built-in" the seats and the inclination was not wide enough per a perfect view. I needed a glass of water to take a medicine and I had to ring the cabin assistants 8 times before to have their attention. The only reason why I booked with SriLankan was the saving of about 150 EUR per ticket but after such a bad experience I will never travel with them anymore preferring to spend more with other companies.

Appalled by attitude and service - family of 5 with children with pre-booked flight back from Colombo to Heathrow - were told on arrival our flight was overbooked so we would need to be put on next flight with no apology or compensation - manager reported they routinely overbook their planes!

I only gave 2 instead of 1 for comfort as the way back to UK we had a little more space but the way there was horrendous I have flown a lot but never experienced being so squashed on a flight. The staff were ok service was very slow I was hungry by the time the second meal came. I asked on the way to Colombo if someone could fix the entertainment system which had a very limited selection of films and twice was ignored exactly the same thing happened on the way back to UK. The food was revolting fish was dry deserts had no substance and cakes tasted like jelly. It took an hour and a half to retrieve our baggage from the baggage reclaim in Colombo. Also on the way back to UK the flight was delayed 3 hours times kept on changing people waiting for hours not knowing what was going on. No one apologised or explained why we had the delay at any stage.

Travelled Business Class SIN-CMB-FRA return. A320 SIN-CMB-SIN fairly standard narrow body seating with limited recline and without footrests. A330 CMB-FRA-CMB seating an old version of 'lie flat' but quite comfortable (new A330-300 has modern seating). Service on all but the last sector was excellent - the Purser on that flight seemed to have missed the 'smiles' slogan. Food was very high standard with a good selection of choices. Passenger entertainment system is dated but adequate. Punctuality was excellent. Lounges in SIN and CMB excellent - at FRA (JAL Oneworld) less so. During a long transit of CMB airline accomodated us at a very good off airport hotel - system worked well. Overall a very satisfying experience and would travel with Sri Lankan Business Class again.

BKK-CMB on an A320. Was marginally better than my CMB-MLE flight last year. Half of the crew friendly and talkative other half very distanced and did the minimal tasks required of them. Got an emergency exit row and so very happy with seat space and comfort. IFE on demand and had a pretty satisfactory list of entertainment options. The food was surprisingly (based on my Maldives flight) the best aspect of the journey - an almost perfectly cooked breakfast. Flight departed 10 minutes late but caught up for lost time in the air. Baggage came out well timed.