Since the government took over the control of ‘Sri Lankan Airlines’ from Emirates in 2008, the national carrier, needless to say, was going downhill. Today, some say, the crisis has reached the point of no return.

Discerning citizens perceive the financial crisis faced by Sri Lankan Airlines in many different ways. Some categorically state there should be e major restructuring process at Sri Lankan Airlines to rescue the national career from the financial mire it is in at the moment.

Soon after the colossal financial loss incurred by Sri Lankan Airlines was reported in ‘Asian Mirror’ a few days ago, former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Weerakoon Wijewardena commented on Facebook saying, “these are simply operational losses before reckoning depreciation and interest on loans. The net losses are not revealed by the Airline, nor are they published by CB or Finance Ministry. The media too do not ask about the net losses; neither do Parliamentarians. The public is not worried about these losses and they are quite happy if their children are employed by these airlines.”

Wijewardena’s brief analysis of the matter makes the picture even grimmer. So what should be done? What is the way forward?

An Aviation Engineer who wished to remain anonymous sent in a number of proposals to rescue ‘Sri Lankan Airlines’. His proposals include,

“1) Revamp the current senior management panel, and turn them into task oriented, contract basis ones, so that provided their KPIs are not met - they will duly be replaced by a successor. The current aged senior management panel has been in the picture for so many years and they should be held responsible for the present situation. It is high time to revamp the entire board including the lagship top rated positions, such as the Chairman, CEO and COO.

  2) Break the organization into different profit centres, just like SriLankan Catering works. The Airline currently spreads its operations from airline operations, ground handling, training, technology and services to engineering. If each operation can function as individual profit centres they will have their own KPIs and each will not be a burden on the others. Such a mechanism will give individual targets to each entity and  performance can be measured at each stage.

 3) Treat Mihin Lanka as a completely different profit centre. At the moment, the operations of Mihin Lanka are being taken care of by SriLankan Airlines, making a huge debilitating impact on the operation financially in terms of finances.

4) Optimize flight network route by reducing frequencies that are not popular and avoid Mattala as a transit for international flights. Ideally Mattala should be promoted for inbound long haul flights. It is also advisable to do a final passenger count for such routes and their final disembarkation point and if no one is disembarking at Mattala, the flight should be directed to Colombo. The present system waste passengers’ time and that makes Sri Lankan Airlines unpopular. For example, those who earlier flew from Colombo to Trichy. Now fly from Colombo to Mattala and then to Trichy. This delays the journey by one and a half hours.

 5) Profit centres highlighted in point 2 can still earn revenue for the SLA, by selling their products andservices. Training sector is one area the SLA can cash in on.  However, such profit centres should not by any cost put on to any kind of joint ventures, paving the way for third parties to siphon off the profit.

7) Encourage voluntary retirement and mandatory retirement schemes for the staff members to address loopholes on the recruitment front. It was reported by ‘Asian Mirror’ that the SLA spends a monstrous amount of money on a daily basis for each employee. “

While the Aviation Emgineer offered a comprehensive revamp plan, Fazl Muhammed Nizar, a commentator, offered a ‘simple solution’.

“Sell it for half its worth to an overseas entity and fool the people in to believing that it is FDI. The country will no longer lose money.”

Considering the present state of affairs at Sri Lankan Airlines and the manner in which it operates, Muhammed Nizar’s solution seems to be the easiest one!