Cleaning house
In preparation for a possible suitor the government has directed that the national carrier be merged with its budget carrier sibling, Mihin Lanka with the brand of the smaller carrier being discontinued. Public Enterprises Development Minister Kabir Hashim in a media briefing said that the two airlines will combine into one SriLankan Airlines brand to cut down operational costs. The media briefing was the first updates since the government earlier this year announced sweeping changes including directing the government Treasury to take up a large part of the carrier’s accumulated losses – currently estimated at $3.25 billion – as well as looking for a management partner. The carrier’s new CEO, Suren Ratwatte, is optimistic of the carrier’s future but acknowledges it will be a tough journey. “Previously, it wasn’t run strictly in the commercial sense, and unfortunately I am faced with the legacy of those decisions with aircraft and routes that really make no commercial sense. So, we’ll have to rationalise all that. It will be quite a difficult 18 months to two years before we manage to sort things out and get it back on the right flight path,” Ratwatte said.