Sri Lanka Aviation

Exactly. So that means whatever said and done, SriLankan has to take the A350s, since there is no termination clause for them?

This will be good as it promotes better travel options within the island. Except for the Southern highway, the road system and road condition throughout the island has deteriorated immensely of late. I did Kandy/Colombo some 2 weeks back on a Sunday early afternoon, it took me about 4.5 hours to reach Colombo on a 150km distance. In many countries, it would take the most 1.5 - 2 hours. Imagine all the time wasted.

4R-ALR was in maintenance last week.

Finally! Hope to see a couple of ATR’s and Bombardier Q300’s operating soon!

That appears to be the case. The fact that this order hasn't been cancelled supports this.

The other issue is that based on what they still owe ($800 million) they paid full price for these aircraft. Another corrupt deal.

Even if they can somehow sell these aircraft they will have to do this at a huge discount - that's a $400 million + loss.

There are still 3 white tail A350 sitting in Toulouse from the previous fiasco. Airbus won't be doing UL any favours imho.

The real question is when the money loaned by UBS runs out.

SriLankan hires new COO/CFO



SriLankan Airlines, which is going through a restructuring exercise aimed at reducing debt and preparing a business plan that would be attractive to new investors, is revamping its management team.

The Business Times reliably learns that the airline has recruited Vipula Gunatilleka as the Chief Operating Officer cum Chief Financial Officer (COO/CFO). Mr. Gunatilleka, a former CFO at SriLankan many years ago, is currently CFO/Board Member at TAAG Angolan Air Lines, Angola’s national carrier.

Vipula is key member of the senior management team responsible for turning around the loss making national carrier of Angola and responsible for Finance, Information Technology, Human Resources & Procurement functions of the airline.

Vipula started his accounting career at KPMG in Sri Lanka and counts over 25 years of senior leadership experience with some of the leading companies Sri Lanka, Singapore and Australia. He was also the CFO of Sri Lankan Airlines and played a pivotal role during the management transition of the National Carrier from Emirates to the Government of Sri Lanka in 2008.

Vipula is a fellow member of Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of UK, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka ,Certified Public Accountant (CPA) of Australia and holds a MBA from the University of Colombo. He is also a GE Trained Six Sigma.

The airline is yet to find a successor for its CEO Suren Ratwatte who is stepping down in August.

The airline’s new board of directors is tackling a load of issues including mismanagement during the previous regime, rising debt payments and higher-than-market rates for aircraft leases.

The “clean up”, reliable sources told the Business Times includes a management shake-up, route rationalisation, review of leases and rescheduling of debt.

Expert evidence led before the ongoing Presidential Commission of Inquiry revealed that the airline has been embroiled in mismanagement and wrong leases on aircraft hired at significantly higher-than-market rates during 2011-2014.

Source : http://www.sundaytimes.lk/180624/bus...fo-299337.html

SLTPB tie-up with airlines on joint promos
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Tourism promotion officials are in talks with airlines aimed at attracting more travellers while working jointly with tour operators.

Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) Managing Director Sutheash Balasubramaniam said that currently they were looking at a new kind of promotion similar to that with MasterCard where they would work together with airlines and tour operators.

Right now officials were in the process of engaging the industry to evolve a policy that would be transparent to work jointly with tour operators and airlines and help with the multinational companies to bring in the numbers, he explained. This new policy would be drafted within about two months, he said.

While seeking opportunities in this regard with national carriers of the key markets the industry would be also looking at options available with other carriers to bring in tourists from other destinations as well, he said.

The MD explained that these promotions would become a win-win solution for both the industry and the airlines as it would ensure that high profile visitors could be attracted in addition to social media influencers.

“Some of the airlines are very strong in their countries and in turn it helps the airlines to bring in more traffic by either filling up their aircraft or even increasing their frequency,” Mr. Balasubramaniam said.

At present officials are in talks with carriers like Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, Condor and some of the West Asian.

He noted that other carriers would want to engage in partnerships with Sri Lanka Tourism when word gets out that the destination is looking to partner airlines and it would create an interest among airlines to come in.

Source-Sunday times

Interesting news. Wonder if this is a sign of things to come regarding a new CEO.

Source : http://www.sundaytimes.lk/180624/bus...fo-299337.html

Perhaps a bit of research would have helped.



Sound familiar?

The fact that a Sri Lankan is being hired is a dead giveaway - obviously connected to someone high up in the GOSL.

Changing a few people at the top won't change anything imho.

All I'm hearing is a lot of "Big Talk" - what exactly has been restructured?

I was more so referring to this:

Sounds like it's run at about the same level of incompetence as SriLankan!

Just another Sri Lankan looking for a big payday without any accountability whilst being protected by whatever Corrupt Politician he sold his honour and family name to imho.

I know of no Sri Lankan who ever turned around an ailing Airline in the world scene only the ones who messed up perfectly good ones and even finding a foreign one is getting harder in this climate. The longer you keep this going more debt they accumulate all of which is government guaranteed; meaning they have to come good with it regardless. And it`s not like this debt funds expansion but losses. Every year they have to fund 200 to 300 million usd to keep it going at best of times and the cost of debt is also rising as lenders factor in ever increasing risk of default. You see this already in their leases, Srilankan has gone passed the ability to muster market interest rates.

According to Dailymirror

As for fleet rationalization, the report says the airline has started negotiations with AIRBUS for the cancellation of the orders placed for four new 350. The company has agreed to eight NEO 320 aircraft instead of the current order. It will be deliverable after 2023.

The committee has also recommended the curtailment of expenditure by 15 per cent for the next financial year.

The government is considering retrenching the excess staff of SriLankan airlines by measures such as Voluntary Retirement Schemes, a report says.

The airline will appoint a task force for the implementation of a proposal made by the committee appointed to look into the financial situation of the national career. The airline is estimated to have an excess staff of 2,000 and that some 1,000 employees are between the ages of 50 and 55.

By March 31, 2018, the national career had incurred a loss of US$107 million. The committee, in its report submitted to Public Enterprise Development Minister Lakshman Kiriella, said the airline is hopeful of reducing the losses and had recommended that legacy liabilities should be removed from the balance sheet as early as possible. Otherwise, it says the interest payable on loans would add up to the total loss incurred by the airline.

Doesn't matter what they order - they still need to pay for it. This looks like a Billion Dollar order - there is no way to pay for this.

Good luck with that - perhaps they could start by cancelling Suren's ridiculous demands.

It's more like 3000 staff. There's no money to pay for all of this - not going to happen imho.

Far cheaper to shut it down and start a new Airline with no government ownership or any Sri Lankans in the management. This can be done for a tiny fraction of what it's costing to keep UL running.

Why should the people of Sri Lanka have to pay a single Rupee of the losses at UL?

Useless ordering more 320neos, could've opted for 330neos or atleast 330-300s. Anyway whatever they purchase they'd still be paying vast amounts.