Emirates' investment in Sirlankan was really rather cunning - it allowed them to route substantial numbers of subcontinent workers through CMB to India (which has some of the most restrictive policies on passenger air transport around - and correspondingly airlines that can get in there enjoy high yields) as their own services were running close to capacity.
They can of course 'franchise' more routes from Indian Airlines - but at vast expense (as happened with BLR earlier this year).
Emirates also benefits from the 'economies of scale' generated by having Srilankan operate A320s and A330s - and I have no doubts at all they make huge amounts of money (as did SAir Group in the same way) from the provision of management, software, crewing, training, marketing and other support services.
I saw the L1011s at GAMCO being prepared for delivery to Transat (in the case of the -500s anyway; the longbodies were parted out). Cosmetically, they were in terrible shape - I was told that the GAMCO staff refused to go on the things until they were fumigated and steam cleaned - but structurally sound as a pound. Next to them was a Gulf Air A330 which was only a couple of years old, undergoing a C check. Lots of cracks, lots of corrosion and lots of snags.
Says it all really - El-Tens for ever!
