COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s national carrier, SriLankan Airlines said that it would incur a revenue loss of 47 million US dollars from the closure of the Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport in 2017 for maintenance work on the runway.
Over 200 flights will be cancelled over a three-month period commencing from 06th January 2017 to 06th April 2017, as a result of the maintenance work to be carried out at the airport.
“The first 3-4 months of next year would be tough for us as we will be cancelling close to 200 flights,” the CEO of SriLankan Capt. Suren Ratwatte, told media. The airline has estimated that the loss would be about US$ 47 million.
Earlier the Airline advising the customers of changes to its schedule said the airline is not the operator of the airport and has no control over the scheduled maintenance works. The cash-strapped airline, which has been suffering huge losses, said that in the Financial Year ending 31st March 2016, it recorded a significantly improved performance compared to the previous year.
In a bold move the government has decided to cancel the order for four Airbus A350s ordered by the previous government paying a fine of US$ 170 million to the leasing company.
The move comes as the government is in the process of finalizing a partner to revive the national carrier. It canceled four of eight A350 aircraft orders with Airbus Group SE.
Sri Lankan Airlines, which has taken on lease seven Airbus A330-300s since 2012, has debt of around $3.25 billion. It posted a group net loss of 16.3 billion rupees ($112.6 million) for the financial year through March 31, narrowing from the 31.4 billion rupees loss of a year earlier, due to lower oil prices. The carrier last posted a profit in 2009, a year after Emirates sold its stake in the venture.
