Oman Air, confident of growing in Sri Lanka, is rejecting claims that they were trying to sabotage Sri Lanka’s national carrier, SriLankan Airlines. “The stories in the media were baseless. SriLankan does our ground handling, catering and we have a bilateral agreement to uplift each other’s air tickets,” Peter Hill, CEO Oman Air, told the Business Times on the sidelines of a press conference to discuss Oman Air’s plans for the country.
Peter Hill with two airline staff |
“All allegations of sabotage are untrue. The bi-lateral agreement was on a government to government level. When Sri Lanka refused to grant us the necessary routes, the state of Oman reacted. When they asked us, we said there’s no real reason for us not to fly,” he said.
Barry Brown, Chief Commercial Officer Oman Air told the Business Times, “I worked for SriLankan for eight years. It’ll only be foolish to bring down what one built up.”
He said that he requested the Omani Government to implement the sovereign bi-lateral document in full. “I understand that when the Omani government was unable to ascertain why this agreement wasn’t honoured, it was then that the Omani Civil Aviation Authority threatened to cancel the bilateral, thus restricting SriLankan’s ability to fly over Omani airspace.”
He rubbished allegations of favouring Emirates, when he was at SriLankan Airlines, saying that he was employed by SriLankan and not Emirates.
When asked about poaching SriLankan Airlines’ staff, Mr. Hill – also former CEO of SriLankan Airlines - said that he advertised on a ‘free’ press around the world for positions and chose the best. “I know that I left a whole host of good staff at SriLankan Airlines. The important thing is that they came to us. We ‘never’ poached them.” |
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