SriLankan CEO gets Rs. 4 million salary, CCO paid Rs. 3 million! 

Apr 05, 2016

Capt. Suren Ratwatte, the recently-appointed chief executive officer of Sri Lanka’s national carrier SriLankan Airlines, which is incurring heavy losses and nearing bankruptcy, has got himself a pay hike and his salary is now Rs. four million, say sources at the airline.

He is the brother of Charitha Ratwatte, a close adviser to prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Suren has got his salary increased reportedly on a request by chairman of the airline Ajith Dias. In addition, he has recommended that Shiva Ramachandran, who was recently recruited as the CCO, be paid a monthly salary of more than Rs. three million. The director board has objected to it, but the CEO has approved it.

 

The Yahapaalana government has made it clear to the SriLankan director board that no funds can be provided any longer from the treasury to run the airline. 

 

Therefore, SriLankan has been instructed to obtain a request for proposal from the aviation industry and find a suitable strategic partner. It could be decided later as to whether that partner should be given a 49 per cent or a 51 pc stake of the airline, said the government.

 

If no strategic partner could be found, the airline will have to be either privatized or sold, the government has said further.

 

To get confirmation of the above, Lanka News Web spoke to a top administrative official of SriLankan and he admitted everything, and stressed there was no division or disunity among the airline’s director board. As far as he knows, he said all directors are arguing among themselves on how to take the institution out of the present crisis and develop it, and they do not have any personal animosity.

 

Chairman Dias and a majority of the directors, all appointees of the Yahapaalana government, are serving SriLankan without getting any salary, the official explained.