Minister of Ports and Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva has revealed that the recent delays of eight flights have caused losses to the tune of USD 06 million to the national carrier SriLankan Airlines.

A special discussion pertaining to the recent repeated SriLankan Airlines flight delays and cancellations was held this morning (02), chaired by Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva and with the participation of SriLankan Airlines management and all affiliated trade union representatives, at the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Aviation.

During the discussion, the representatives of the engineers’ trade unions stated that the recent flight delays were caused by the technical failures in several aircraft, however, the authorities of Sri Lankan Airlines have claimed that this situation arose as a result of certain trade union actions.

Following inquiries by the officials and trade union representatives, the Aviation Minister expressed that there are about 260 pilots for the 21 aircraft currently in operation with the airline and that accordingly, 12 pilots can be assigned per aircraft in rotation, and that this is in line with international standards.

Furthermore, Minister de Silva, who highlighted that a flight officer must fly 100 hours per month according to international regulations, pointed out that in general, a SriLankan Airlines pilot has flown only around 60 hours per month as per the available data. He also claimed that if one pilot of the airline flew at least 80 hours per month, such an issue would not have arisen.

Moreover, the minister also drew attention to the fact that there is an issue within the trade unions regarding their salaries and allowances. However, the Aviation Minister claimed that SriLankan Airlines Ltd. has to pay back loans amounting to a total of USD 1.2 billion as well as their interest.

Meanwhile, the losses incurred during the recent few days due to the delays in nearly 08 flights were USD 06 million, the minister said, emphasizing that it was therefore neither possible to make any allowance nor any salary increment for the employees at the time.

The minister, however stressed to the trade union representatives that nevertheless, if the productivity of the airline is increased, certain payments can be made based on their productivity.

Nimal Siripala de Silva, who claimed that he holds a great responsibility to provide high-quality service to air passengers as the aviation minister, asserted that accordingly, he decided to hand over the right to operate these flights for other airlines while protecting the rights of SriLankan Airlines.

Accordingly, the other airlines should be provided with the ‘Fifth Freedom Right’ [right or privilege granted by one State to another State to put down and to take on, in the territory of the first State, traffic coming from or destined for a third State in international air services], the minister said.

The Secretary of the Ministry of Ports and Aviation K.D.S. Ruwanchandra, Chairman of SriLankan Airlines Asoka Pathirage, Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority G.S. Vithanage, its Director General G.K. Jayakantha and other officials took part in this discussion.