SriLankan Air Nose-Dives Into Disaster

By Shyamon Jayasinghe –April 28, 2016

Shyamon Jayasinghe

The SriLankan Airline story is now out. Those who still sing the praises of the ten year rule of Mahinda Rajapaksa and cry for his return need not look elsewhere to pause and check their urge and rage.

The episode is part of the narrative of a style of governance that had been disastrously dysfunctional, thereby creating the potential for a nation’s ruin. It adds to the numerous historical instances where authoritarian regimes can go wrong,haywire and sore. It behoves us, therefore, to extricate ourselves of any personal bitterness and examine the episode even clinically as a case study or pointer for the future. In this way, alone, we can convert a major failure into a learning experience.

It is on record that since 1998, under the previous arrangement of partnership with the Emirates, SriLankan Airline showed significant profits. The name wasn’t glamorous but we had a national airline to be proud of and to boost our tourism and international say; yet it was never a burden on our economy. Our staff was gainfully employed and the engine was well in motion. There was no burden on the national exchequer.

Can you remember how the rot set in? Reportedly it was a purely personal incident that pricked the pride of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Mahinda had to get back quickly from London to Colombo and his staff demanded special seats in the airline for that purpose. Being a professionally run affair the Airline management refused to make that accomodation because that would have caused inconvenience to heaps of passengers and tarnished the business image of the airline. To the Rajapaksa team it was like seeking accomodation and diverting a CTB bus. But that’s not how it all works when it comes to international airline behaviour.

According to reports the President was annoyed. A few days after, government withdrew the travel visa given to the director Peter Hill and in the unholy year of 2007 the partnership with Emirates was abrogated. Reported profits to Sri Lanka at that point in time was about 7 billion rupees.

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