SriLankan Airlines has sent the following clarification to the article published on March 6, bearing the heading “SriLankan wastes on lease aircraft seats”.
The clarification said: Some portions of this piece refer to the cabin refurbishment program entered into, in the 2010/11 financial year.
At that time, the airline embarked on an initiative to reconfigure a number of aircraft with lie-flat business class seats and a new inflight entertainment (IFE) system for selected wide-body A330 long haul aircraft. This was an ambitious and extensive project which resulted in a new “look and feel”to the aircraft, with an enhanced product that the airline uses to this day.
Due to the large number of seats and related equipment required and space constraints in the engineering area at the airport, an off airport warehouse in the Seeduwa area was rented for the duration of the project.
Once the refurbishment was successfully completed, the premises were cleared of all the equipment and returned to the owner in November 2016.
The above is totally unrelated to the issue of the A320 aircraft bearing registration 4R-ABK, which is currently in the process of being returned to the owner/lessor.
The next operator of this aircraft needed the cabin reconfigured to their standards.
SriLankan Engineering was contracted to do so, with the necessary seats and equipment being provided and paid for, by the lessor. The work is ongoing and SriLankan Engineering will be paid for this work.
There never was any connection between these two refurbishment projects, which are separated by many years. One was for aircraft that are being operated by SriLankan and the other for an aircraft that is to be flown by another airline in a different country.That your article attempts to link the two events is, at best, poor reporting and is a blatant distortion of the facts.
SriLankan Engineering has a long standing and profitable contract with Indigo Airlines of India to provide heavy maintenance services for their aircraft. These activities are conducted by a dedicated team in a separate hangar at Katunayake.
There is no merit to the allegation that “preferential treatment” is afforded to Indigo. The “line” that performs this work functions as a separate business entity within Engineering. SriLankan Engineering is proud of its long association with its valued customer Indigo and is proud to say that the contract has been renewed for a further three years, SriLankan Airlines said in a statement yesterday.
0 comments: