SriLankan Chairman says pilots issues are "internal problems"

In an interview after repeated requests, SriLankan Airlines Chairman Ajith Dias said the issues highlighted by the Pilots’ Guild were internal matters.

“Nowhere in the world are the internal problems of a company reflected in the newspapers,” he lamented. “This seems to happen only here and, that too, only in respect of SriLankan Airlines.” He insisted that as a rule, the management did not respond to “personally-motivated” allegations. He answered general questions about recent developments.

The Chairman said every decision the management made was carefully considered, studied and taken in consultation with experts. Frankfurt and Paris had bled money for years. “Roughly, we lose about 150 Euros per passenger,” he said. “The Middle East airlines operate at a cost that nobody, certainly not us, can compete with.”

“We have to run this company till such time somebody takes it over,” he explained. “It is better to cut our losses now.” He said the European slots would not be sold. The company that enters into partnership with the Government will have to decide whether or not to use them. Suspending flights to loss-making destination was a common industry move.

Inbound passenger availability to Colombo won’t change as SriLankan had sufficient partnerships with other airlines. “Transit passengers to Colombo were not our natural traffic and yields on transit were low,” said Capt Suren Ratwatte, Chief Executive Officer.

Points- of- sale data and commercial information were sensitive and could not be released. “We have a commercial department to look into that,” he insisted. “For pilots to ask for such information is akin to the commercial department wanting the pilots’ training reports to check if they were capable of flying planes.”

Mr Dias said the airline had a marketing and business plan tiding over till March 31 next year. The Annual Report will be launched after the Annual General Meeting scheduled for the last week of September.

The incoming A350 aircraft will “absolutely not” be flown, he clarified. It would be unprofitable to do so. There are ongoing “confidential and deep” discussions with the lessor in this regard. As for the A330s, one has been leased to Pakistan and discussions with regards to two more will be finalised next week.

The company has identified areas that were overstaffed and was awaiting Government approval for the rightsizing of the company. “This means to have the right number of people for the jobs needed to run an airline,” Capt Ratwatte said. “The moment the Government gives the go-ahead, we will do it.” Rightsizing could involve voluntary retirement schemes and “various other things”.

The CEO described the opposition to the cutting of European destinations as “emotional”. “Our relationship with the pilots is not bad but the relationship with a minority of them represented in the Pilots’ Guild could be improved,” he admitted. “There is considerable resistance to change. They do not wish to accept that the European routes are loss-making and they seem to enjoy their European layovers. But we have been losing money on them for years. ”

“We have some of the best pilots in the world working for us,” said Mr Dias. “Their job is to fly planes and that is what they should be doing.”