After flying from London to Madrid to Paris on Iberia (flying through Madrid to price an itinerary with a cheaper tax component), I flew SriLankan’s A330 business class from Paris to Colombo. While SriLankan is normally the “forgotten” Oneworld airline, it offers a healthy amount of award space out of any Oneworld airline between Europe and Asia. I was wondering whether it would be a hidden gem, or whether award space was relatively abundant for a reason.
While my flight was decent, I can’t in good conscience recommend flying SriLankan Airlines over any other Oneworld business class product. Especially with the current geopolitical situation we’re seeing more award space pop up on Qatar Airways (and Etihad if you’re using AAdvantage miles), and Cathay Pacific releases award space to its own frequent flyer programme, where points are easy to come by. All of these airlines feature an exponentially better business class product than SriLankan does, in almost all aspects.
Of course, there’s a reason for this. These airlines are hugely different in size and funding, and serve very different markets. However, most reading this post will probably be redeeming SriLankan on points and wondering what it’s like, so I’m evaluating it from that perspective.
I’ll share my first impressions as I’m fresh off the flight, and I’ll share a full review in the coming months.
SriLankan’s A330 Business Class Seat: Passable, but with No Storage
Back in the day, reverse herringbone seats were the best thing since sliced bread for the premium air travel industry, and SriLankan was actually one of the first airlines to join in on the bandwagon. At the time the airline bought seven A330-300s (they already had 11 A330-200s with a different seat), and outfitted them with 28 reverse herringbone seats. However, in 2026 many airlines have moved ahead with different levels of innovation in their business class products, and SriLankan hasn’t been able to do so yet.
SriLankan A330 Business Class Cabin
While all reverse herringbone seats are broadly comfortable, this iteration of it (the Safran Cirrus seat) is one of the more basic ones. There’s zero head privacy, and not much storage either.
SriLankan A330 Business Class Seat
By not much storage, I meant that the entire contents of my pocket had to be emptied into this tiny little tray to the side of the seat. That’s not a lot of storage – less so than many more modern economy class seats (though the crew did let me put my laptop in the literature pocket with no issues, as it fit snugly).
SriLankan A330 Business Class Storage
I have no complaints about the seat in bed mode – it’s not the largest or most comfortable sleeping surface ever and padding is okay, though the seat itself is passable. I do have gripes about sleeping in SriLankan business class, however, which I’ll get into later.
SriLankan A330 Business Class Bed Mode
Tech wise, there’s not much of an advantage to the seat – they have a 110V power port, and a USB-A port. There’s no Bluetooth connectivity available.
The entertainment system was basic, featuring 188 movies. On the plus side the movies were pretty good – I watched a bit of A Star Is Born, featuring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. While I’ve known the theme song (“Shallow”) since it came out, I’d never actually watched the movie until this trip.
SriLankan A330 Business Class Entertainment
There are more modern business class seats out there, and I’d say that the seats are a little tired for a business class product in 2026. I’d say that for going to Sri Lanka, this is absolutely fine, especially since these A330s don’t operate flights of more than 10-11 hours (they fly to Tokyo and to Paris/London/Frankfurt, though they don’t do that many other longhaul routes). There’s also direct aisle access, which not all options between Europe and Asia have.
This product beats Royal Jordanian, the other second-rate Oneworld airline offering award space on the Europe-Asia route. It also beats the older product on flights such as British Airways’ older business class product. However, the newer products on British Airways, Finnair and Qatar Airways, as well as Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines beat this product out, in my opinion.
There’s one other significant point to note – even on longhaul routes, you’re not necessarily guaranteed Sri Lankan’s latest product. I was originally going to fly from Frankfurt to Colombo, and that flight got swapped out for an A330-200 last minute. Meanwhile my flight down to Singapore was swapped for an A330-300, so I ended up flying the same aircraft type on both segments.
SriLankan’s A330 Business Class Amenities: Not Good
On the plus side, SriLankan hands out quite nice amenity kits in business class. You get an amenity kit with tissues, body lotion and lip balm, a comb, earplugs and a dental kit, and the crew also handed out socks, slippers and eyeshades on top of this as well. While the headphones weren’t amazing quality, I had no qualms using them either.
SriLankan A330 Business Class Amenities
However, the bedding is some of the worst bedding I’ve seen in international business class. The pillow was okay, but the blanket was absolutely terrible – these were economy-style blankets, and the cabin temperature was kept quite cold, so I would’ve actually been quite uncomfortable had I not had the option of nicking the blanket from the seat in front of me. A mattress pad was, of course, out of the question.
SriLankan A330 Business Class Bedding
The bedding was the main thing that make SriLankan’s business class experience feel cheap – I’ve had much better blankets in premium economy before on flights of similar length.
SriLankan’s A330 Business Class Meals: Good, But Not Very Local
On the plus side, SriLankan’s longhaul business class meals were enjoyable. However, it’s such a missed opportunity that SriLankan doesn’t provide any Sri Lankan meal options for their flights into Sri Lanka. My shorthaul connection from Colombo to Singapore did feature one Sri Lankan option, though again, that’s way fewer than what I’d expect for an airline with such a rich food culture.
Instead, my flight from Paris to Colombo featured a choice of duck magret, sea bass, and beef poêlé. Both the duck and beef sounded good, though the flight attendant encouraged me to go for duck, saying that there would still be beef available if I wanted to try it afterwards. The duck breast was medium well pushing on well done (as you’d expect on a plane), though the sauce was flavourful and the gratin on the side was nice.
SriLankan A330 Business Class Meal – Duck Magret
After finishing I decided I might as well take the flight attendant up on their offer to survey the beef dish as well, and they obliged. Apparently poêlé is meant to be butter-basted steak, which this certainly wasn’t – it was a fork tender, beef rib style dish. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed it, and it was well-executed.
SriLankan A330 Business Class Meal – Beef Poêlé
Similarly, I would’ve liked to see one Sri Lankan breakfast option, instead of poached eggs, frittata, pancake, and vegetable thaler (literally “coin” – not Sri Lankan). However, I was pleasantly surprised to see perfectly runny poached eggs.
SriLankan A330 Business Class Meal – Poached Eggs
As you can see above, champagne was served in proper flutes, which I enjoyed. However, I couldn’t help but see that the rest of the drinks list was significantly pared back. There was Duval-Leroy champagne available and some spirits and beers in stock, as well as two red wines and two white wines, though otherwise I found the drinks list to be lacking with not much creativity whatsoever (once again lacking a local option).
SriLankan A330 Business Class Drinks Menu
It’s especially frustrating that Sri Lankan food is easy to reheat – I can imagine a world where they’d be serving up curries, idiyappam, kiribath, sambols, etc.. There was roti served on my flight out of Sri Lanka, though even then, I really feel like they’re missing an opportunity to highlight their cuisine.
SriLankan’s A330 WiFi Situation: Dismal
Let’s chat about SriLankan’s WiFi situation. Most airlines between Europe and Asia offer some option of onboard WiFi, even if it’s paid. There are a couple of notable exceptions, including Qantas, some Vietnam Airlines planes, Korean Air, and more, but those airlines lag behind the competition.
SriLankan’s A330-300s do have WiFi, so I guess that’s better than nothing. That’s where the good news ends, though – the airline uses OnAir as their WiFi provider, and the speeds are atrocious. Worst of all, WiFi is charged with both time and data caps, and the prices are sky-high:
- 5 MB of messaging costs USD 5, valid for 2 hours
- 15 MB of internet access costs USD 10, valid for 1 hour
- 40 MB of internet access costs USD 25, valid for 3 hours
- 100 MB of internet access costs USD 35, with no time cap
WiFi was so slow that the “full” package was slower than what you’d get with most airlines’ “messaging only” services. Sadly the airline doesn’t seem to have any plans to upgrade their WiFi. For the record, Emirates’ older A380s also use OnAir (with similarly terrible speeds), though at least WiFi is free with no data caps. I wanted to stay connected for a bit, though spending US$50 (£37) for 120 MB of WiFi was a low point for me.
If you get swapped to one of the airline’s A330-200s, there won’t be WiFi.
SriLankan’s A330 Business Class Service: Hospitable, Not Proactive
All of the flight attendants I interacted with were hospitable and friendly, and willing to chat about what to do in Sri Lanka. They were happy to share some must-try dishes in Sri Lanka (I only transited for a few hours this time, though I’ve got a commitment there in the coming year), so I was excited to hear more about their culture. The first meal service was a clear indicator of the team showing interest in the product, where they recommended me a dish and allowed me to sample another option from the menu.
However, the crew didn’t initiate any of these conversations unless prompted or as part of the service flow. Speaking of service flow, it was quite refined overall, with small touches such as the first meal being served directly on the table (breakfast was served directly on a tray, though also not involving trolleys). My only complaint was that breakfast was served 3 hours before landing, which was awfully early for a 10-hour flight arriving at 5 AM.
Why does the cabin have to look like this at 2 AM Sri Lanka time!?!?
SriLankan’s Business Class Lounge at Colombo Airport: Uninspiring At Best
While I’m on the subject of SriLankan Airlines’ business class product, let’s quickly touch base on their lounge offering at Colombo Airport. SriLankan’s business class lounge at Colombo Airport isn’t the most inspiring – there’s a rest area, some seating, and good views of the tarmac, as well as one shower room in each gendered bathroom, though that’s it. As a positive, you’ll find some good Sri Lankan food at the lounge, unlike what I had onboard.
SriLankan Airlines Serendib Lounge Colombo
And for those who know that SriLankan Airlines has a second lounge at Bandaranaike Airport and wonder if it’s better, it isn’t…to put it mildly.
Here is the entire Serendiva Lounge Colombo in one picture
Conclusion: SriLankan’s Second-Rate Business Class
SriLankan Airlines’ business class is okay if it’s the only option to get between Europe and Asia, and I certainly wouldn’t mind flying it if I were going to Sri Lanka. However, it simply can’t compete with the other connecting options if they’re available.
SriLankan doesn’t have a price advantage on connecting flights between Europe and Asia, and also only flies a lot of their European routes just a few times a week (so they can’t compete on frequency either). The onboard product is average at best, with an okay seat with below-average tech for 2026, terrible bedding, and uncompetitive WiFi. The food was also a missed opportunity to highlight Sri Lanka’s incredible cuisine, even though I found the actual quality to be good.
Neighbouring India is ramping up their premium cabin product quality (between Air India and IndiGo), and there’s obviously the ME3 to compete with as well, as well as Gulf Air, Oman Air, etc.. SriLankan Airlines may not be in the best place to invest in new planes or retrofitted cabins, though I’d start with investing in their catering, switching their WiFi provider, and if possible, getting some better bedding. That would make the product quite a competitive one, even without actually investing in new seats.
Have you flown SriLankan Airlines’ business class before? How was your experience?
