Government Hunts For Foreign Airline To Lift SriLankan

April 2, 2016

In an effort to get the country’s national carrier, SriLankan out of it’s current financial catastrophe, the government is looking at the possibility of tying up with a foreign airline in an effort to help better manageSriLankan airlines and convert it into a profit making venture.

State Minister Sujeewa Senasinghe

State Minister of International Trade Sujeewa Senasinghe said that drastic measures were necessary to safeguard the future of the country, and to ensure that the airline will not continue to make losses.

“SriLankan is a huge problem for us, so we are looking at collaborating with a foreign carrier, to convert the loss making carrier into a profit making enterprise,” Senasinghe said.

The minister said that the national carrier was a profit making enterprise till 2008 when it was under the Emirates management, until former President Mahinda Rajapaksa for his own reasons worked in a manner which led to Emirates pulling out of the agreement with SriLankan, after which the airline took a nosedive which has led to the current crisis.

Meanwhile, Minister of Special Assignments, Dr. Sarath Amunugama categorized SriLankan airlines as one of the top 10 worst-managed state enterprises in the world. He made this statement at a seminar held on Thursday.

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