High oil prices, airport closure, cost of flight diversions to Mattala airport, difficult market conditions and several other issues were some of the key factors in the increase of losses of SriLankan Airlines, its Chairman Ajith Dias said.
Speaking at the PATA Summit post press conference at Jetwing Blue Hotel on Saturday he said that they had to cancel over 600 flights during the closure of the Colombo airport which he said was an exercise that had to be done.
“We had to then divert some flights to Mattala and they had to be grounded for over three hours which also resulted in additional expenses which increased our losses.”
He said fuel prices and other factors have also scaled up the airline’s losses for the last financial year from US$ 5 million to around US$ 14 million. He said that with the Colombo airport fully operational they have now halted all their operations flying via Mattala airport.
The depreciation of the Sri Lanka Rupee against the US Dollar had a significant negative impact on the airline.
The total operational revenue increased to Rs.136.68 billion from Rs. 129.48 billion in the prior year.
However, difficult market conditions resulted in the airline recording a net group loss of Rs. 6.49 billion for the year.
“This is an increase from the Rs. 2.90 billion (US$ 3.15 million) loss recorded in the prior year, but a significant improvement from the deficit that had been budgeted for the year.
The Chairman said that it was a difficult decision and painstaking to do away with Frankfurt and they were keen to resume that sector whenever possible.
“More than Paris and Milan sectors, Frankfurt is important to us to provide connections to ‘Oneworld’ passengers coming and going from USA and also from a tourism perspective. I must also add that Frankfurt sector losses were marginal.”
The Chairman also said that they expect two narrow body A320neo aircraft by July and September and two more are due in 2018.
“We are looking at increasing frequencies to some of the destinations especially in India making SriLankan the largest foreign airline to fly to India. We also have plans to launch direct flights to both Vietnam and Hong Kong soon.”
The airline also hopes to increase frequencies to India and China. “We will also introduce more flights to Bangkok which are all profitable routes.”
Currently SriLankan operates 23 frequencies per week to both China and Hong Kong.
He also lamented that they sometimes have to wait for a long time for government approvals for the implementation of its business plans. “I must also say that the delay in finding a partner to run the airline has also placed our plans in suspense.”
The airline successfully completed the integration of Mihin Lanka’s operations into the SriLankan network during the year, marking a seamless transfer conducted in a relatively short time frame. At the end of the year, SriLankan was serving 36 international destinations from its hub in Colombo, with an operating fleet of 24 aircraft.
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