Thanks Mr.Speedbird. Would you think the current UL management is doing better than previous management?

Thanks for the link - as expected another complete fiasco which taxpayers will once again have to fund.

No mention of any investigation into this - no attempt to find those involved - no prosecution of those involved - no attempt to recover the money paid as commissions.

Fortunately I work for an Airline that is run as a business by people who know what they are doing. What are they doing at my Airline? Looks like they are going to get more A340's.

I do think management can do anything...to even go to the wash room they need the blessing of the Sri Lankan political elite.

Hypothetically speaking even If I manage this "lemon" and let say I want to cut 30% of UL staff. Next day PM will on on call asking why?...JVP and JO will scream saying the sky is going to fall over...newspapers will write utternonsence

Lets look at the two politicians primary responsible to UL; Kabir and Ravi...they know absolutely this is not a viable option...they told me "hey X even IMF is telling us the same thing" I want do "things" but I cannot....I asked him What would happens if UL declare strike tomorrow...I asked him since ground handling is controlled by them all arrivals and departure will stop completely from Sri Lanka and within 72 hours on strike there would be 1000s of pax stranded in DXB, DOH, AUH, SIN, HKG...so what is the backup solution for that? I said best thing is to bring the deregulation which is technically you guys can come up with...so I said you guys are also responsible for this mess

Sri Lanka was fore front on de regulation in South Asia...They were well ahead on telecommunication industry...they started quite well in ports as well...and started the deregulation of the aviation by selling a stake to EK with a condition monopoly of catering and ground handling to be open up in 10 years...most of the deregulation was rolled back by MR (he loves to fly) and his buddies...In a government de regulated world corruption tend to be in the lower scale...I am not sure if any of the readers are aware how difficult to get a telephone line to your house?...In early 90's to early 2000's Sri Lanka was well ahead of India in deregulation and innovation...But today Indian aviation and energy industries are well ahead of Sri Lanka...

Exactly. You can only blame MR for so long. Its now been 2 years and UL is probably in a worse state than during MR's time.

Best to deregulate the aviation industry (call for RFPs to compete with UL on ground handling, catering and core aviation businesses). You might even get QR or another airline to take a stake in a fresh airline with no liabilities. Let UL fight it out or die.

I see memories are short....

During the Rajapakse years:-

- A Billion+ dollars in losses
- 3.2 Billion dollars worth of aircraft orders
- Aircraft used as private taxis (and the Airline had to absorb the costs)
- Rampant Corruption/Theft/Fraud and Racketeering
- The promotion of scum like Pradeepa K, Druvi P, Kapila G and Nishantha W to management positions
- Massive number of political appointees at all levels within the company including Cabin Crew who speak no English.

I worked there for most of those years - I've seen it all with my own eyes. All of the above has doomed the Airline.

The present government inherited a huge mess. That said...

- They've done nothing about it. It's 'Busines' as usual!
- Mihin has been intregrated into UL - I'm betting the losses have been 'integrated' as well.
- Appears the entire fleet is leased at above market rates
- Rampant Corruption/Theft/Fraud and Racketeering continue with no action or investigation.

The sad truth is that there is no way to make this profitable - ever.

No company will get involved in this as there is no way to get a return on any investment.

Um I'm not defending MR at all. Had he not annulled the EK deal and installed his mates in management, UL will not be in this position. If you read my comment properly I'm more so actually disappointed with the current government.

4R-ANA is performing today's Colombo>Bahrain>Colombo flight.

Thanks for the clarification.

It is important that everyone understands how this mess started and who is responsible.

I fully agree that the blame should be appropriated to the instigators.

But we should also not forget that the current crop has not done anything to change the status quo at UL over the past 26 months.

There is no point in continuing to blame the British for SL's problems. Similarly there is no point in continuing to blame MR for UL's woes over 2 years after he was deposed.

Turning around a loss making business takes times. But 26 months is long enough to at least change the direction of the raging bull and get it back on tracks, which, clearly has not happened.

Hi Rahal,

SriLankan's one and only A319 (4R-MRF) has not been flying for last seven days. Any reasons why? Is it under going lease return checks. 4R-MRC and 4R-ABK are already in the process of returning back to lessor. Any idea which is next aircraft going to leave UL after 4R-MRF? Are the A332s leaving UL this year?

Possible SriLankan, TPG deal may take over six months

SriLankan Airlines restructuring plan with the shortlisted private equity fund TPG may take over six months to arrive at a possible agreement, Deputy Minister of Public Enterprise Development Eran Wickramaratne said.

Wickramaratne told reporters Wednesday that discussions with regard to the subject of airlines is a complex matter to be deal with. “There were eight bidders initially then it reduced to three and now shortlisted to only one party,” Wickramaratne said.

“It’s the private equity fund called TPG who is now doing the due-diligence. We have only selected them as a partner of SriLankan Airlines. Discussions with them will continue at least for six more months.”

Texas Pacific Group (TPG) which was launched in 1992 with the buying of Continental Airline in 1993 has invested in many airlines including American Airlines, Ryan Air and Mid-West Airlines and owns direct and indirect stakes in several leading airlines.

“It was among the shortlisted bidders for SriLankan in 1997 but we went for the Emirates partnership,” Wickramaratne said.

“We may have to bring in more than one company to revamp the current Airline and with TPG we can do so by bring in another into SriLankan Airlines.”

More wishful thinking by the GOSL - not going to happen.

It appears while Eran wants to go ahead with TPG, Ravi wants to go back to square one and start dreaming for the white knight that never showed up.

Also, the article repeatedly refers to TPG as the "shortlisted" party. If TPG are the only party in contention, aren't they the "Chosen" party? Is this an oversight or are they actually still looking at other two shortlisted parties too?

As I said before, every day that GoSL keep UL in their books is a huge loss for the tax payer.