Chanaka Bandarage

Congratulations to the NPP government for its decision not to privatize the Sri Lankan Airlines.

Only a bold government could make bold decisions!

Gota and Ranil were all out to sell it. Of course, they would have sold it for pittance – just like how they sold the Galleface Army Headquarters and the Hambanthota Port respectively.

We know there were buyers. They would have made profits, otherwise, they would not bid.

Then, why cannot the government run it profitably given that the Airline is well established, has good goodwill, and is currently well run? Its catering arm is making much profit already.

It is difficult to comprehend when the world’s airlines are making massive profits why Sri Lankan Airlines is always loss-making.

Last year, Emirates made a profit of US$ 5 billion, and Qantas about U$1.5 billion.

The CEO of Sri Lankan Airlines, Mr Richard Nuttal – an Airline veteran, is a very capable individual. He set out a plan to develop the Airline – leasing/buying more aircraft, which sounded terrific. Let’s hope he will stay.

We are expecting about 2 million foreign tourists a year. If at least 30% of them uses Sri Lankan Airlines, we would be through. Most Sri Lankans also use it.

We have a distinct advantage – ie, our service.

Foreigners love Sri Lankan Airlines because its inflight service is excellent. So, many times we have won the ‘Friendliest Airline’ award.

Our pricing must be competitive.

Our online purchasing system is less user-friendly.

The Airline is not offering adequate/fast discounts. It must try to reach 100% occupancy. Every empty seat is loss revenue.

Sri Lankan Airlines offers its customers non-stop alcohol. This is not necessary. All leading airlines have inflight alcohol consumption limits, especially on short haul flights.

We (Sri Lankan Airlines) should become a main hub for the Maldives and India especially Kochin/Chennai/Bengalaru.

Then, we should try to capture a bulk of the Australian/New Zealand traffic to London and Europe.

Currently we are catering only to the Sri Lankan diaspora there. If we correctly tap the whole Australian/New Zealand market – it is a goldmine.

We should aim at soon running a daily flight on this route (both ways).

It is useless to run services to Seychelles, Durban, Moscow, Djakarta.  On them, most of the seats are empty.

Currently Australians, New Zealanders travelling to London have a stopover in Bangkok, KL, Hong Kong, Singapore etc. But, Colombo is the shortest route to reach London from Australia.

In Qantas’ first ever London bound flight (from Perth in 1944), it had  only one stopover; that was not Hong Kong, Singapore or any other airport, but Colombo. That flight took 17 hours. This service ran for several years.

This was the first plane to have the Kangaroo logo applied to it. Thus, it was called ‘the Kangaroo Route’.

After Air Lanka was handed to them on a platter, Emirates developed itself as a major airline. Until then they were small.

Thanks to using Air Lanka’s landing rights in London (Heathrow), Europe (including Paris’ Charles De Gaulle), New York (John F Kennedy), Sydney (Kingsford Smith) and Melbourne (Tullamarine); Emirates had a huge windfall. Today, Emirates is one of the world’s largest and most successful airlines.

After the 2001 Katunayake bomb blast there were massive payouts by insurance companies, amounting to billions of dollars.  All the lost planes belonged to Air Lanka, but,  Emirates took that money. We had an utterly incompetent, corrupt, idiotic government then.

Owing to losing almost of the entirety of our air fleet, today we are renting planes  at exorbitant rates.

The fact that Sri Lanka is now a famous tourist destination and there is no land route to come here, Sri Lankan Airlines simply cannot go wrong.

It is due to corruption and mismanagement that the Airline has always sustained losses (even in Air Lanka days).

Even the ex-chairmen and directors are still enjoying luxurious benefits like free annual air travel, free use of the Serendib and Serendiva lounges and other  perks like free souvenirs, Christmas hampers etc. All these must be scrapped.

Even the existing board of directors and senior staff must not be bestowed with  undue perks.

Let us hope that the President has appointed a good Chairman and a Board of Directors this time.

The writer suggests that the Sri Lanka Airlines be made a public company with the government holding 51% of the share capital; and list it in the Colombo Stock Exchange. A massive share float should be launched at a fair par value. Because people have so much trust, faith and love for the new President, they will rush to grab shares in this initial offer. Even the middle-class and poor people must be encouraged to buy at least few.

By this way, the general investing public would always be able to freely buy and sell Sri Lankan Airlines shares. The Airline should be able to raise about Rs 10 billion this way. That will be sufficient for it to run on its own, without needing cash injections by the treasury.

Of course, there will be a huge onus on the new Board to run the airline well and produce results; so that the shareholders (ordinary mothers and fathers) will reap benefits (dividends).

(One sad thing in Sri Lanka is that very few people are involved in share trading. Now that we have an honest government, people must be encouraged to actively trade in the stock market. The Sri Lankan Airlines share float proposed  herein will be a good avenue for many to embark on share trading first time).

Once again, well done the Government!