FitsAir

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FitsAir
IATA ICAO Callsign
8D EXV EXPOAVIA
Founded1997; 27 years ago (1997) (as Expo Aviation)
Hubs
Focus cities
Fleet size4
Destinations3
HeadquartersColombo, Sri Lanka
Websitewww.fitsair.com

FITS Aviation (Pvt) Limited, DBA FitsAir (formerly known as ExpoAir), is a Sri Lankan airline. It operates scheduled passenger services within Sri Lanka, as well as international cargo flights to several cities in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, and also operates charter flights to India. The company slogan is Friend In The Skies...

ExpoAir was the first airline in Sri Lanka to be certified under the International Civil Aviation Organization ( ICAO) annex requirements, as well as being the first domestic airline to be certified by the Department of Civil Aviation to commence flights to Jaffna.

History[edit]

Former logo of FitsAir
Expo Air's DC-8 at Mauritius. (2006)

Expo Aviation was established in 1997, with operations commencing in 1998 using 2 Antonov An-8 aircraft, which were later replaced by An-12s.

In 2001, Expo Aviation started domestic operations to Jaffna using Ilyushin Il-18 and Antonov An-26 aircraft. Soon after this, the airline was renamed ExpoAir.

The next year, in 2002, the airline leased 3 Fokker F27 aircraft from Oman Air. An additional IL-18 started operating in 2003, and ExpoAir launched cabin crew training in 2004.

In 2005, Expo Air applied to the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL) to operate international air cargo services to Malé, Mumbai, Tiruchirapalli, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, Vizag, Kochi, Bangalore, Chennai, Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Kathmandu, Chittagong, Dhaka, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta, Manila, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Muscat, Jeddah, Beirut, and Cairo, as well as various cities in Australia, Africa, and Europe, with the short-haul routes utilizing the Airbus A320 and long-haul routes utilizing the Airbus A330 and Airbus A340 models.[1] In 2006, ExpoAir added a Douglas DC-8 to its fleet and sold a Fokker 27.

Starting in January 2012, Expo Air relaunched its scheduled passenger flights from Ratmalana Airport to Jaffna Airport with a brand-new Cessna 208 Caravan. The aircraft has 12 seats and passengers are able to reach Jaffna in less than 1 hour.

In 2019, the airline expanded its domestic operations by introducing scheduled flights from Colombo to Batticaloa.[2]

Scheduled domestic operations to Jaffna resumed in February 2020 with three flights weekly operated on their ATR 72-200.

In November 2020, the airline leased a former Thomas Cook Airbus A321 modified to carry cargo to operate nonstop flights to Dubai.

In 2021, the airline got three A320-200 aircraft, which are dry-leased for passenger operations. On 5 October 2022, Fitsair ceremonially started its very-first scheduled, commercial passenger flights, launching Colombo (CMB) to Dubai (DXB). Later, this service was launched as a daily service due to higher demand from 26 March 2023. On 20 February 2023, airline launched Colombo (CMB) to Chennai (MAA) service. In May 2023, the airline crossed the 50,000 passenger mark for the first time since their scheduled passenger service started in October 2022.[3]

Destinations[edit]

FitsAir flies to the following services to scheduled domestic and international destinations:

[H] Hub
[F] Future destination
^ Passenger + Cargo
[C] Freighter aircraft only
[T] Terminated destination
City Country IATA ICAO Airport Refs
Bengaluru  India BLR VOBL Kempegowda International Airport[C]
Bangkok  Thailand BKK VTBS Suvarnabhumi Airport[T]
Chennai  India MAA VOMM Chennai International Airport[F]
Colombo  Sri Lanka CMB VCBI Bandaranaike International Airport[H]
Colombo  Sri Lanka RML VCCC Ratmalana Airport[H]
Dhaka  Bangladesh DAC VGHS Shahjalal International Airport[T]
Dubai  United Arab Emirates DXB OMDB Dubai International Airport[C]
Jaffna  Sri Lanka JAF VCCJ Jaffna International Airport
Jakarta  Indonesia CGK WIII Soekarno–Hatta International Airport[T]|
Jeddah  Saudi Arabia JED OEJN King Abdulaziz International Airport[T]
Kuala Lumpur  Malaysia KUL WMKK Kuala Lumpur International Airport[T]
Lahore  Pakistan LHE OPLA Allama Iqbal International Airport[C]
Malé  Maldives MLE VRMM Velana International Airport[C]
Mumbai  India BOM VABB Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport[C]
Sharjah  United Arab Emirates SHJ OMSJ Sharjah International Airport[T]
Singapore  Singapore SIN WSSS Changi Airport[T]
Thiruvananthapuram  India TRV VOTV Trivandrum International Airport[C]
Tiruchirappalli  India TRZ VOTR Tiruchirappalli Airport[T]
Visakhapatnam  India VTZ VOVZ Visakhapatnam Airport^

Fleet[edit]

The FitsAir fleet includes the following aircraft

4R-EXO Cessna 208 Caravan EX is taking off from Ratmalana
4R-EXR Airbus A320-232 with new livery on approaching to Bandaranaike International Airport
FitsAir
Aircraft Total Orders Passengers
(Economy)
Remarks
Airbus A320-200 3 0 C8Y156 4R-EXQ, 4R-EXS, 4R-EXR
ATR 72-200 1 - 70 4R-EXN
Cessna 208B Grand Caravan 1 - 12 4R-EXO Wet leased by David Peiris Aviation
Cessna 152 1 - - Operated by FitsAir Flight Academy. 4R-FAB
Cessna 150 1 - - Delivered in March 2023 for FitsAir Flight Academy.
Total 7 -

Historical fleet[edit]

FitsAir Mainline Historical Fleet
Aircraft Introduced Retired Passengers Notes
Antonov An-8 2 - 4R-EXA[4]

4R-EXB

Antonov An-12B 1 - 4R-EXC[5]
Antonov An-24RV 1 - EX-24808[6]
Fokker F27 5 0 0 4R-EXF[7]

4R-EXG[8]

4R-EXK[9]

4R-EXH

4R-MRA

Ilyushin IL-18 3 0 0 4R-EXD

UR-CFR

EX-005

Douglas DC-8-63CF 1 0 0 4R-EXJ
Cessna 208B Grand Caravan 2 0 12 4R-EXP (ex- 4R-EXL)
McDonnell Douglas MD-82(SF) 1 0 0 4R-EXM
Airbus A321-200 1 0 LY-VEH

Other business[edit]

ExpoAir has a leasing arm that wet- and dry-leases aircraft to third parties. In 2005, an F27 was dry-leased to Pakistan International Airlines, and in 2006, the airline wet-leased a Douglas DC-8-63CF to Air Mauritius. In 2007, it dry-leased another F27 aircraft to Mihin Lanka. In 2008, it wet-leased a Beech Super King Air 200 from South Africa and sub-leased the aircraft to the UN arm of WFP for operations in Sri Lanka. In August 2014 Dimonim Air (Indonesia) leased the sole ATR 72-200, (PK-HVH), belonging to Sri Lankan carrier Fits Air, for use on its internal Indonesian network.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka Archived October 13, 2006, at the Wayback Machine 11 April 2005
  2. ^ "FitsAir expands with scheduled flights". The Sunday Times Sri Lanka. 2019-03-10. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  3. ^ "FitsAir crosses first 50,000 passengers mark". DailyFT. 2023-05-09. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
  4. ^ https://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/000862803.html
  5. ^ https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/6122899
  6. ^ https://www.pbase.com/image/116183226
  7. ^ Registration Details For 4R-EXF on planelogger.org
  8. ^ Registration Details For 4R-EXK on planelogger.org
  9. ^ Registration Details For 4R-EXK on planelogger.org