SriLankan Airlines gets lifeline from Treasury

In a last ditch attempt to maintain SriLankan Airlines till a foreign partner is found, the government has decided to infuse Rs.13.2 billion as a loan from two state banks, Bank of Ceylon (BOC) and the People’s Bank (PB).

This came after a directive from the President to the airline’s board of directors to turn it around or depart at a meeting in June in which the management was heavily criticised on management issues.

The President has given them time to prove results till last month (September). But no progress has been made up to now, official sources revealed.

In the meantime, the Government approved a proposal by State Enterprise Development Minister Kabir Hashim seeking necessary funds from the Treasury for this purpose, official sources said.

The Treasury has issued two letters of guarantee to the PB and the BOC to provide a credit facility of Rs. 6.75 billion and Rs. 6.45 billion, respectively to meet the airline’s financial requirements.

In March 2016, the then Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake directed the Treasury to provide funding to the ailing national carrier for six months, a senior Finance Ministry official said adding that this period lapsed in September last year.

The Cabinet also approved a proposal made by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in April 2016 to allow the Treasury to take over the airline’s total debt of Rs. 461 billion and set up a joint venture to operate it profitably.

Minister Hashim, who is responsible for SriLankan, has been entrusted with the task of devising new strategies to turn around the loss-making airline within this period and rescue it from its deep financial mess.

The attempts made to restructure the national carrier under a public private partnership basis and the process of finding a new investor in the past 12 months has been unsuccessful up to now.

The airline has submitted a restructuring plan recently to the government to reduce its debts and achieve breakeven point in the short-to medium term.

The plan is to downsise the group while operating its ground handling and engineering as separate entities under separate managements, and purchasing fuel at competitive prices, etc.

The accumulated loss of the airline had risen to over Rs.170 billion, he said adding that it has recorded a profit of Rs.4.4 billion in 2008 and thereafter suffered heavy losses amounting to Rs. 107 billion under the administration of the then chairman Nishantha Wickremasinghe, brother-in-law of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

7 passengers, 9 crew in Gan flight

Here is one more reason why SriLankan Airlines, the country’s national carrier is running at a loss.

A recent flight from Colombo to Gan, the southernmost atoll in Maldives, had a compliment of seven passengers. However, there was a nine member crew. The ratio was over one crew member for every passenger and a surplus of two.

Source: Sunday Times

I had a strog feeling that this would happen, UL should consider operating 3-5 flights to GAN via. MLE, this would definitely be a more feasible option.

Focusing on India should be the main aim for UL as a strong Regional Airline. Increasing flights to BOM was a good move from the management, now focus on adding new destinations

Goa (GOI) - Tourist influx
Ahmedabad (AMD) - Cargo Volumes/ Business Travelers/ Tourists

SriLankan pilots warn again of safety issue on Colombo-Delhi night flights


SriLankan Airlines Pilots have warned the country’s civil aviation chief that a late night flight to New Delhi with a return next morning could cause them fatigue and endanger flight safety.

Though within “prescriptive limits,” the “flight pattern” as a roundtrip is technically called, they have said “would not be acceptable” without a layover (an overnight stay) or re-schedule of flight hours. This is because of the growing number of Air Ground Safety Reports (AGSR) filed by pilots. A total of 19 such reports had been filed over fatigue after 27 “flight patterns.”

The pilots’ concerns are contained in a letter Captain Ruwan Vithanage, President of the Airline Pilots Guild of Sri Lanka (AAPGSL), sent last week to H.M.C. Nimalasiri, Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka seeking his “intervention in a matter of importance to flight safety.”

Full read http://www.sundaytimes.lk/171008/col...ts-262951.html

SriLankan Airlines plans to acquire more planes, but not right now.

Asked why SriLankan had disposed of some of its aircraft, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said on Friday that it was because the airline had under its debt restructuring program scrapped some of its long haul destinations.

"Once the huge debt burden that we inherited from the Rajapaksa government is reduced, SriLankan would have more planes at its disposal since the long term plan is to develop the national carrier into a viable venture", he added.

Senaratne also revealed that the proposal to lease vehicles for State institutions had been shelved because the Cabinet of Ministers was of the view that it would be an unproductive exercise.

When required, vehicles would be purchased after the necessary approvals were obtained, he said.

SriLankan Airlines: Can the national carrier be saved?



Why do they operate on non demanding routes?

Turkish Airlines, Istanbul Ataturk – Male – Colombo 01MAY18 – 01JUL18 Service reduces from 7 to 5 weekly, A330-300 service

To avoid losing the valuable slots, when demand picks up ?

Maybe UL need to lease smaller planes, such as ERJ 175's for less demand seasons.

Because they have ordered aircraft they don't need - and there are still more coming!

They have to pay for these aircraft no matter what (12 year leases no termination clause) - they have no choice but to fly them somewhere.

And the answer to the first question is NO!

Maybe a one offer where there was no demand where they carried a full load to and returned empty? I was on a 380 from SQ to SYD which was practically empty, it doesn't mean that there is no demand.

China Eastern sending Airbus A330-200 today as CES231 instead of Boeing 737.

I travelled in UL 177 to Hyderabad yesterday. The plane is full including business class. Yesterday they operates small aircraft (ABL). I normally see that route operates by ANC most of the times.

UL is increasing the frequency of HYD flights from 4 to 5 weekly from end of this month.

GAN has a demand for tourists and cargo, and the direct flights are operating from only CMB and MLE. Prior to commencement of UL passenger flights, 8D used to operate dedicated freighter flights to GAN. I am curious to know what's UL's load factor to GAN on the other days?

Yeah forgot.

Maybe the belly had enough cargo to fly the plane

Next time, pilots need to announce, the flights are empty but the belly is full, so don't make it a big news..