20 M LOST MONTHLY DUETO GROUNDED AIRCRAFT:DAYASIRI

An aircraft belonging to the of Sri Lankan Air lines fleet has been grounded for more than two months due to a technical defect , causing the already bankrupt national carrier Rs 20 million a month, UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekera charged yesterday.

Minister said the aircraft A340-300 had been lying inside a hanger at Katunayake since 18 January this year as no effort was made to complete the repair. Minister requested that this aircraft should be repaired soon and brought back to operational condi-

The aircraft A340-300 had been lying inside a hanger at Katunayake since 18 January this year as no effort was made to complete the repair

tion so that the airlines would not incur any more losses.

However a spokesman from the Sri Lankan Airlines Engineering Department said there was no major technical fault with the said airline as it was grounded only to fix flat bed seats. However he said there was a delay in fixing such seats to this particular aero plane as equipment which were imported arrived late. He said the aircraft would start operating soon as the work was nearing completion.

Seats are being fixed at the moment. It was explained that the company had decided to fix flat seats to the entire fleet to add more comfort to the passengers. This is being done to upgrade the aircraft to the latest available features, sources said. In addition flat seats have been fixed to two other aircraft of the fleet as well.

Current fleet of the Sri Lankan Airlines comprises 13 aircraft with three A340 -300 configuration 1 wide bodied aircraft, two A340-300 configuration 2 wide bodied aircraft, four A330-200 aircraft and three A320-200 aircraft.