Lionair was an airline with its head office in the Asian Aviation Centre in Sri Lanka on the grounds of Ratmalana Airport near Colombo.[1] It was a privately owned charter operator. Its main base was Ratmalana International Airport.[2]
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Founded | 1993 | ||||||
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Commenced operations | 1994 | ||||||
Ceased operations | 2006 | ||||||
Hubs | |||||||
Fleet size | 6 | ||||||
Destinations | 10 | ||||||
Headquarters | Ratmalana, Sri Lanka | ||||||
Key people | Chandran Rutnam, founder and chairman |
The airline was established in October 1993. The airline started its operations on 24 October 1994. Initially it was owned by Lionvert Inc USA (51%), a United States-based investors group and by Sri Lankan investors (49%). Lionvert sold its stake in late 1997. Lionair suspended domestic services when an Antonov An-24 aircraft went missing shortly after it took off from Jaffna in 1998, but resumed services in October 2002.[2]
Lionair had operated services between Colombo and Jaffna since October 1996, until the suspension of services in 1998. They had hoped to resume services in November 1998.[3]
In 2005, Lionair applied to the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka to operate services to the following destinations: Athens, Chennai, Kochi, Denpasar, Dhaka, Dubai, Guangzhou, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, London, Malé, Melbourne, Mumbai, Rome, Singapore, Sydney, Tiruchirapalli, Thiruvananthapuram and Zürich, using Avro 748 and Airbus A320 aircraft.[4]
Aircraft | Fleet | Introduced | Retired |
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Antonov An-24 | TBA | TBA | TBA |
Avro 748 | TBA | TBA | TBA |