Unfriendly skies down Simplifly

The last of the helicopters owned by the former high flying domestic airline Simplifly was shipped out a week ago after shutting down services this year as a result of unfriendly Sri Lankan skies.

At the peak of its operations, it was operating two helicopters and two eight-seater aircraft and four trainer aircraft, said Simplifly Founder and Vice Chairman Suren Mirchandani. The airline that used to operate since 2004 has now called it a day after fighting hard to sustain itself as it faced tough competition from the state- run facility, the Sri Lanka Air Force ( SLAF) operations.

“Up until the time the war ended we were the only operator. But after the war there were many operators and we had no room to grow because the market was crowded by the SLAF,” he recalled.

Certain limitations were impeding their operations and more so since the Airforce was able to sustain itself through concessions from the government.

They (SLAF) were able to operate in and out of Colombo and offering rates that were uncompetitive since they were subsid i zed by the stat e, Mr. Mirchandani said.

Further on the demand side of the equation there was insufficient traffic to sustain the business, he said.

“Even in the fixed wing segment it was not possible to compete with the rates offered by SLAF,” he said.

However, he pointed out that they were proud of the role they had created in establishing the aviation dream of becoming a part of the economic reality.

In addition, he noted that the operations of air services were not made part of the business plans of the tourism industry.

“Part of the responsibility was due to the tourism industry and they did not support us and we were always a last option,” he noted.

The hotel and tourism industry never worked hand in hand with the aviation industry, he said.

Sri Lanka continues to lose a number of opportunities, he said one of which is in attracting students from overseas as Colombo could have been an ideal location for training.

“We had a unique opportunity to attract students from West Asia and India but obtaining the approvals was delayed by about 3- 4 months for foreign students and two months for local students to fly,” he said.

In this respect, it would have been cheaper to obtain accommodation and the licence by applying to a US training school as opposed to doing the same in Sri Lanka, he said.

Restrictions in terms of the regulatory environment acted as constraints since they were compelled to invest in business that was disproportionate with the size of their operation; in effect they were not treated as a small operator but as a large operator.

Mr. Mirchandani noted that they were fortunate to find buyers from Germany who were interested in purchasing their helicopters. Simplifly was one of the first to operate a sea plane, aircraft and helicopters all three at the same time.