SriLankan Airlines has explored all business opportunities to keep the Airline afloat in the backdrop of a dramatic global drop in demand for passenger air transport, SriLankan Airlines Chairman Ashok Pathirage said issuing a press statement yesterday.

“Globally the airline industry has experienced a decrease in capacity of approximately 60% to 80% due to the Covid-19 pandemic with containment measures in place. SriLankan Airlines experienced a revenue reduction of 70% during the financial year 2020/21 compared to the year before,” he states.

Following are some excerpts from SriLankan Airlines chairman’s statement.

“We have introduced several measures to ensure every function of the business remain fully operational to grab every business opportunity. As new variants emerge, we are carefully monitoring the situation and we will constantly reassess our strategic plans and adjust accordingly.”

“Despite ongoing border restrictions and airport closures, we have continued to fulfill our obligations as the national carrier by sustaining global trade and repatriating stranded Sri Lankans; 74,032 passengers were repatriated from 229 flights between April 2020 to March 2021. From April to June 2021, 35,612 passengers were repatriated using our scheduled flights. We also adapted to meet the increased demand for transportation of air cargo, resulting from the suspension of flights to Sri Lanka by other carriers.”

“We will be resuming flights to the Russian capital, Moscow this July, with a weekly scheduled flight between BIA and Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport. Using an Airbus A330 configured for 269 economy and 28 business class seats, we will not only facilitate travel but will be the impetus for building closer bilateral business connections between the two countries.”

“Despite the massive impact on global tourism, the airline opted to strategically steer into cargo operations. Our existing fleet was sufficient to cater to cargo operation and the limited passenger operations. The wide-body fleet was used prominently for cargo operations while the majority of the narrow-body fleet was kept grounded due to lack of utilization for passenger services. The expansion of our cargo operations strategically reduced the adverse effects of passenger travel.”

“The present schedule consists of a network optimizing passenger and cargo contributions to over 29 destinations. New destinations in the present schedule include Sydney, Incheon, and Nairobi with Frankfurt and Moscow to commence by the end of July. Over 60% of the uplifted capacity was allocated to local exports to ensure a continuous foreign currency inflow to Sri Lanka in the hope of strengthening the domestic export segment. SriLankan Airlines operated 3,039 scheduled flights and 165 cargo charters/ non-scheduled operations for uplifting Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and essential goods connecting the Far East, Africa, the Indian Subcontinent, Europe, and the Middle East since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic from April 2020 to June 2021. Cargo Flights carrying a tonnage of 77M Kgs supporting the national economy.”

“We managed to bring down the cash burnout substantially by approximately 44% through re-negotiating aircraft lease contracts to achieve both lease rent reductions and deferrals, employee-related cost savings, implementing a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS), restructuring the organization to make it leaner, cross utilized the existing cadre and job amalgamations, ceasing external recruitments other than for operationally critical vacancies, reviewing unproductive policies and practices. However, the cash burn is forecasted to continue until at least the end of this year, as we expect continued severe revenue losses from the aviation industry.”

We have taken many steps precautionary measures to ensure the safety of passengers when flying with us. Our efforts were recognised by Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) with a diamond rating, and we pride ourselves as the only airline to receive such a rating in South Asia.”

“We expect that many countries will open their borders for air travel by the end of the year, enabling us to recommence our commercial passenger operations and begin our journey towards recovery. We will constantly reassess our plans based on the evolving nature of the crisis with appropriate adjustments. The future of SriLankan Airlines lies in rebounding passenger travel both in numeric and caliber. All our periodic targets are contingent on international air travel being restored,” says Ashok Pathirage.