Aircraft and bullocks

Monday 26th February, 2024

Sri Lanka is a nation in the hara-kiri mode. It needs no enemies; it has become its worst enemy. It continues to maintain a bunch of failed, corrupt politicians and their bureaucratic lackeys responsible for ruining the economy and hell-bent on degrading vital national assets which they are planning to dispose of at fire-sale prices. The incumbent government therefore does not make a serious effort to ensure the wellbeing of state institutions, much less tap their full potential to make a significant contribution to the country’s economic progress.

The Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) was thrown into turmoil yesterday morning when check-in-counter operations broke down, triggering a social media feeding frenzy; it was immediately claimed in some quarters that there was a wildcat strike. Some irate passengers, both foreign and local, flew into a rage on being informed of flight delays and were seen, on television, berating the airport officials.

Their consternation was understandable. The fear of being stranded makes passengers see red. Avoidable delays such as yesterday’s one tarnish Sri Lanka’s image as a tourist destination beyond repair, especially at a time when more tourists have to be attracted to shore up the country’s foreign currency reserves.

SriLankan Airlines lost no time in issuing a media statement, denying the reports of a strike. (That is about the only thing it has done without delay, during the past so many months!) The national carrier said the delays had been due to ‘temporary, unplanned operational conditions at the airport’ and not any type of trade union action. What it has said by way of a clarification could be considered a euphemism for ‘burnout’ of its staff, or, in other words, workers feeling overwhelmed and drained, and finding it impossible to cope with the workload owing to shortages of personnel and lack of planning on the part of their management.

The SriLankan management may have been able to clear the ground staff of the blame for yesterday’s flight delays, but it cannot absolve itself and the airport authorities of responsibility for the unfortunate situation, the likes of which must be avoided at any cost if Sri Lanka is serious about promoting tourism and meeting its forex targets. The BIA as well as SriLankan Airlines has become a metaphor for inefficiency and delays, which drive tourists away.

SriLankan Airlines has apologised to the passengers affected by disruptions to yesterday’s flight schedules, and promised to take steps to avoid a recurrence of the unfortunate situation. But is it actually equal to the task of making good on its promise?

A spokesman for the Sri Lanka Sevaka Sangamaya told the media yesterday that disruptions to the check-in counter operations had come about due to a dearth of personnel, etc. He likened the temporary breakdown of service to a situation where a bullock that pulls a heavy cart buckles under the weight. This is an apt analogy. When workers have to bullock their guts out, so to speak, they yield to workload, and breakdowns of services or production they are engaged in become inevitable. So, the question is whether SriLankan Airlines, etc., are equipped to eliminate the factors that led to yesterday’s breakdown of check-in counter operations.

Much is being spoken these days about a government plan to hand over airport management to a foreign company. Tourism Minister Harin Fernando, who has apparently become a ventriloquist’s dummy for New Delhi, told the media a few weeks ago that arrangements were being made for an Indian company to take over the management of three airports here, including the BIA.

He said he was confident that under the Indian company the airports would ‘reach a good level’. He, however, stopped short of naming the Indian company. Is it that chaos is being orchestrated at airports as part of the government’s strategy to facilitate the aforesaid deal purportedly on the grounds that there is no other way to make BIA, etc., ‘reach a good level’, whatever that means?