The 11 young pilots, who include four former flyers of the Sri Lanka Air Force, received their wings and epaulettes in a ceremony on 30th March in Katunayake which was attended by Air Marshal Harsha Abeywickrema, the Commander of the Sri Lanka Air Force, Nimalsiri, the Director General of Civil Aviation; SriLankan Chairman Nishantha Wickremasinghe, and CEO Manoj Gunawardena.

The airline’s Cadet Pilot Training Programme has a strong reputation internationally for its high standard. Selection for the programme is extremely competitive, and every Cadet Pilot is regularly tested during the year and a half of training. Cadet Pilots undergo a programme which includes flying training, simulator training overseas, hands-on aircraft engineering work at the airline’s base in Katunayake, and classroom instruction.  This is the first batch to be awarded Wings since 2009. Another batch is currently completing training and yet another has just been recruited.

 The airline now has a global route network of 51 destinations in 32 countries, with the recent addition of Kochi in India and Guangzhou in China. It is planning to launch services to Moscow later this year.