SriLankan will continue to fly : The airline to break-even in three years: Min Kiriella

Jun 18, 2018 (LBO) - The government has no plans to close down SriLankan Airlines but the National carriers'  income and expenditure should be bridged,  Minister Lakshman Kiriella said. The Minister of Public Entreprise and Kandy City Development  also said that the airline is likely to break-even in three years. He made these comments while on a visit to the SriLankan airlines head office recently. “I have advised the new management to see that the airline's income and expenditure is on an even keel within the next three years,” “There is a lot of focus on the national carrier and I wish to state that the government has no intention of closing down the airline. " He said the government was no longer in a position to allocate funds to boost loss-making ventures such as SriLankan on which the government spends some 465 billion rupees annually. He added that is all the tax payers and the government can’t continue to pay that much money. A new board of directors was appointed to SriLankan Airlines with Ranjith Fernando as the Chairman while the Government has appointed a Ministerial Subcommittee under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and a top-level official committee headed by Treasury Secretary Dr R H S Samaratunga to recommend the strategy to revive the loss-making national carrier. According to the latest fiscal management report of the Finance Ministry delays in the restructuring process have increased the burden of business loss to the organization. The loss of the airline has increased to 28.4 billion rupees in review period of 2017 compared to loss of 12.6 billion rupees recorded in previous year,the report said.