Review of SriLankan Airlines flight from Abu Dhabi to Colombo in Economy

UL - SriLankan Airlines

Flight taken on 05 November 2016

UL208

Abu Dhabi Colombo

AUH

CMB

23:00 04h 35m 05:05

Model Airbus A320

Class Economy

Seat

Introduction

Hola Amigos!

This (short) FR will cover the last leg of my trip between Bogotá and Colombo.

I was routed this way:

Flight routing

1

AV 26 - Economy - Bogota → Madrid - Boeing 787-8
2

EY76 - Economy - Madrid → Abu Dhabi - Airbus A330-200
3

UL208- Economy- Abu Dhabi - Colombo - Airbus A320-200

Transiting IN AUH and BOARDING

I had been in AUH earlier that year, but I was mainly at Terminal 3. This time my flight would depart from Terminal 1 and I was happy since I didn't had a chance to see it before. The happiness faded quickly with the massive crowds, the place felt cramped.

I felt hungry and I helped myself to some food in one of the restaurants above the central plaza…in no time I had to go to the boarding gate.

The boarding satellites also felt quite crowded.

SL did not make much of an effort to organise the boarding, which was quite chaotic.

INFLIGHT

Upon entering I was glad our flight was served by one of UL's A320 with PTVs. Another surprise came as the gate agent back in MAD assigned me a window seat on the first row of Economy Class.

Seats were your generic Recaro seats you find in many other airlines. Legroom was quite acceptable. Pillows were already provided, but no blankets. Odd for a red-eye flight.

By then I was feeling totally battered…I dozed on and off.

The cabin was totally dark while we took off. The PTV was a bit smaller than regular PTVs (say midway between your regular PTV and AF A343 PTVs).

Eventually we were given menus (totally unexpected)…excuse the blurry pics. I went for the chicken but forgot to take a pic.

Done with eating I went to sleep.

And then…rumble in my gut. I tried ignoring it. It didn't go away.

So I went to the WC and basically spent the rest of the flight there.

At a point a FA knocked on the door telling me that landing was soon. Do can do.

Long story short, I got out just a few minutes before landing happened.

We were bussed to the terminal and then Immigration, which was fairly quick. My bag did take some time to come out, giving me some fears about a misconnect, probably in Madrid where the ride between T4 and T1 is enormous. But everything ended up fine.

Display all

Product ratings

Airline

SriLankan Airlines 7.4

Cabin8.0 / 10
Cabin crew7.5 / 10
Entertainment/wifi7.5 / 10
Meal/catering6.5 / 10

Departure airport

Abu Dhabi - AUH7.0

Efficiency7.0 / 10
Access5.0 / 10
Services6.0 / 10
Cleanliness10.0 / 10

Arrival Airport

Colombo - CMB5.5

Efficiency8.0 / 10
Access1.0 / 10
Services5.0 / 10
Cleanliness8.0 / 10

Conclusion

I slept most of the time, and when not I had a more time than expected on the WC. I found the airline to be a mixed bag, I don't get how they did not hand any blankets for a night flight. The menu was an unexpected positive detail. Food was okay, but my belly didn't seem to agree with it...I remember it was maybe too spicy for non-local tastes like mine. The seat was okay and I was too tired to try whether the IFE was good or not.

AUH was too crowded and I don't recall any good places to eat, I basically settled for an overpriced Italian place. Planespotting at T1 is quite limited compared to T3.

CMB is dated, but it did the job okay...maybe it is a bit too far from Colombo and that's its worst aspect.

Guess I'll have to give UL one more try to have a better assessment on the airline.

Thanks for reading, happy holidays!