Sri Lanka Aviation

Modernisation of fleet: UL CEO kept in the dark
SriLankan probe
September 25, 2018, 11:32 pm

By Shyam Nuwan Ganewatte

Former Chief Executive Officer of SriLankan Airlines Manoj Vass Gunawardena, giving evidence before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry probing irregularities of SriLankan Airlines, Sri Lankan Catering and Mihin Air, yesterday, said correspondence with a company named Ameration Corporation on modernising the airline fleet had not been made available to him.

Gunawardena told the Commission that there had been an exchange of letters between the national carrier and Ameration Corporation and such correspondence was not made available to The former SriLankan CEO said it had been his responsibility to make executive level decisions and, therefore, he should have been informed of the correspondence on modernising the fleet.

He said he had been able to have a look at the said correspondence only in June and July 2010.

The correspondence with the Amerasion Corporation took place on January 7, February 15, 17 and 19 and on April 10, 2010.

The correspondence had taken place among the then Director General of Public Enterprises B. M. S. Batagoda, Secretary to the Ports and Shipping Ministry Ranjith de Silva and Chairman Sri Lankan Airlines Nishantha Wickramasinghe.

Gunawardena said that though he had 36-years-of experience in the field of aviation, he had never heard of a company named Amerasion Corporation. Previously, SriLankan had not dealt with a company by that name, he added.

The commission began sittings around 10.00 am, yesterday, presided over by its Chairman retired Supreme Court Judge Anil Gooneratne.

"The both way passenger traffic is only 40-50%, hence is not viable"quite similar to Mihin Lanka then, where most of their flights were either "half full or empty"
Unfortunately GAN is also performing the same way
Pathetic!

How is the CMB-HYD performing? and also would Goa (GOI) be a better option rather than VTZ?

Qatar Airways has increased DOH-CMB frequency with additional flight QR 656/657 operated by Airbus A 320

Well this is an old news... in fact what had happen they have resume 5 flights a day frequency along with the season..
i guess Qatar is now only foreign career to have 5 flights a day..

there was a rumor sometimes back (last year) Emirates also wants to increase DXB-CMB frequency .. any update on this

SriLankan Airlines confirmed plans to suspend three times weekly Colombo-Visakhapatnam service, effective 27 October

CMB-HYD is doing okay right now but more support needed. Average load factor is 70% but the yield is very low. I prefer they resume Kozhikode or start serving Ahamabad or something where we can make some money

Sri Lankan Catering IPO blocked by Treasury at last minute: inquiry

ECONOMYNEXT- A public listing of the catering unit of Sri Lankan airlines in 2011 to raise 42 million dollars was blocked by the Treasury at the last minute, de-railing a restructuring and planned cashflows of the carrier, an official told a commission of inquiry.

Head of Financial Management Yasantha Dissanayake, testifying at a Presidential Commission of Inquiry, said that the initial public offering (IPO) for SriLankan Catering was ready to launch, with applications submitted to the Colombo Stock Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"It was ready to go but the Treasury rejected it," he said.

Then Chief Executive Manoj Gunawardena had planned the IPO, and the Bank of Ceylon had done a lot of work as the manager for the issue, Dissanayake said.

"A lot of work was done. We converted some director positions to independent directors as per listing requirements and a prospectus was done," he said.

Upon questioning from Senior Deputy Solicitor General Niel Unamboowe, Dissanayake said he believes the Treasury had given the initial go ahead for the IPO, which sought to list 40 percent of SriLankan Catering to raise 42 million dollars.

He said during this period, SriLankan Airlines was facing a negative net cash flow which was worse than budgeted each month, and its equity was beginning to deteriorate.

He said that fuel prices were rising after falling in 2009, putting pressure on the airline’s costs.

"The IPO which was to come never came. That made the problem worse," he said.

Dissanayake in earlier testimony had said that a 2008 business plan formulated by Gunawardena and then Chief Financial Officer Senaka Chandrasekara sought to raise 50 million dollars by listing minority stakes of SriLankan Catering and SriLankan Ground Handling and another 30 million dollars by listing a small stake of SriLankan Engineering.

However, Dissanayake yesterday said that then Treasury Secretary P. B. Jayasundera had halted the business plan, saying he preferred a more aggressive one.

Jayasundera had also prevented bonds given for re-structuring to be sold to raise cash for current spending, the commission heard. (Colombo/Sept27/2018)

The lease rates on the new fleet are so high that it is impossible to make money operating these aircraft.

Makes no difference where they operate to.

I don't believe there are any profitable routes - massive losses support this. I have yet to hear anyone at UL claim any routes are profitable.

Even Suren has written about this - although he was quite happy to collect big money for doing absolutely nothing!

Yes QR has resumed 5th Daily flights to Colombo Airport. Please find the flight time table and the photo which shows 2xQR aircraft parked at CMB.

DOH-CMB
01:00-08:45-QR656-A320-DAILY
02:10-09:55-QR664-EQV-DAILY
07:35-15:20-QR654-EQV-MO.TU.TH.FR.SA.SU
10:00-17:45-QR654-A346-DAILY
18:00-01:45-QR668-B773-DAILY
19:00-02:50-QR662-A350-DAILY

photo source : lankaflyer

More Ground Time = More Profits

Cardinal, politics, force SriLankan to fly to Rome, Moscow despite losses: inquiry

I'd definitely opt for AMD over any other destination in India, quite simply because of Cargo Volume as well as High Outbound Traffic in terms of Pax

Most Airfreight from AMD come to Lanka via either BOM or DEL which increase lead times.
Thereby a 3-4 x Weekly Connection would be recommended

According to a post on airliners.net Etihad Cargo has pulled out of CMB, are Columbus charters affected as well?

I wonder why CMB should be affected from EY Cargo's restructuring network. Because EY's CMB freighters are being deployed on B77F but EY are returning only 5xA33F to DHL. Trinity Logistics have informed recently that they have very good freighter demand from CMB and renewing the cargo-shipping contract with EY effective Oct 2018.

Rome flights were reinstated due to a request from the Sri Lankan diaspora living in Italy.