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Flight delays: What ails SriLankan Airlines?
View(s):- Minister warns of ending national carrier’s exclusive right to operate flights originating from Colombo; unions say such a move will exacerbate the crisis
- Technical issues, trade union action, brain drain, failure to replenish the fleet are some of the issues the airline is struggling to cope with despite potential to make profits
By Sandun Jayawardana
In the face of multiple flights either being delayed or cancelled this week, Ports and Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva has warned that the government could end the monopoly given to SriLankan Airlines to operate between Colombo and select international destinations.
Airline staff and union members, though, claim that the move would spell a fresh disaster for the troubled national carrier.
Issuing a statement on September 29 to address the problem of flight cancellations, Sri Lankan Airlines claimed it was “mainly due to a number of technical issues that required the temporary grounding of aircraft.” It stressed, however, that these are routine issues and that “aircraft maintenance follows very strict procedures which necessitate repairs or replacement parts before the aircraft are cleared to fly.”
The Nepal-bound flight on October 1 was eventually cancelled. Pic by T.K.G. Kapila
The latest incident came on Wednesday, when SriLankan Airlines UL-402, which was scheduled to depart Katunayaka for Bangkok, was delayed by 10 hours and 27 minutes. The flight was supposed to leave Katunayaka at 1.10 a.m. but only left at 11.37 a.m. This delayed return flight from Bangkok, which was originally scheduled to land at Katunayaka at 10.40 a.m. That flight only reached Sri Lanka late in the evening. Among the passengers were parliamentarians Kabir Hashim and Chandima Weerakkody. On Thursday in Parliament, Mr. Weerakkody raised the matter. “We are talking about developing tourism, but we had tourists stranded for 12 hours. There were many businessmen from Sri Lanka who were also affected,” he told the House.
The lengthy delay came even after Minister de Silva had a meeting with airline management and trade union representatives on Monday to discuss the delays. The minister had said the recent delays to eight flights had caused a loss of USD 6 million to the airline. Sources said he accused several trade unions, including the Pilots’ Guild and Engineers’ Union, of causing the delays by resorting to trade union action such as work-to-rule campaigns. The minister had warned that the government is considering giving the “Fifth Freedom Right” to foreign airlines to operate in the country.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation defines the Fifth Freedom Right as “a right or privilege, in respect of scheduled international air services, granted by one State to another State to put down and take on, in the territory of the first State, traffic coming from or destined to a third State.” This would mean that a foreign airline belonging to one country would be able to start flights from Katunayaka to a third country.
Minister de Silva told Parliament on Thursday that the restructuring process at SriLankan Airlines should be completed by the end of February, provided it receives everyone’s support.
| If delays persist, only short-haul flights will be allowed, SriLankan warned By Damith Wickramasekara SriLankan Airlines might be confined to operating short-haul flights within Asia if there are continued delays in its schedule, a senior Ports and Aviation Ministry official told the Sunday Times. The official noted that the airline has been given two weeks to resolve issues regarding flight delays owing to trade union actions. The official said the decision to confine the airline to short-haul flights had to be taken due to concerns that frequent delays and cancellations would negatively affect the upcoming winter tourist season. “We have thousands of tourists who are due to fly in from Europe, Australia, the US, and other far-off destinations. A large number of flight delays and cancellations on long-haul flights could have disastrous consequences for our tourism industry.” | |
“I held many rounds of talks with the Pilots’ Guild and Engineers’ Union as well as the management. Unfortunately, though, they have been engaged in a go-slow campaign. We can’t find pilots and engineers quickly. I told them sternly during recent discussions that they needed to end this. The chairman has now informed me that the unions have halted their actions,” the minister said. The flight carrying Mr. Weerakkody and others, however, was delayed due to a genuine technical issue rather than trade union action, he added.
SriLankan Airlines staff have been unhappy over the failure of the airline management to resolve several issues. One problem is that allowances that were cut during the COVID pandemic were not restored even after the situation stabilised, despite assurances they would be, an airline source said. This includes meal allowances for pilots and cabin crew as well as off-day allowances for pilots who would be flying on their off days.
The failure to lease new aircraft for the airline on time has also led to a shortage of aircraft, with no spare aircraft being available in case a flight suffers a technical fault. Minister de Silva acknowledged the difficulty in obtaining new aircraft, telling Parliament on Thursday that SriLankan had advertised for Airbus A330 aircraft on five occasions internationally. “No one wants to give them to us. We managed to secure only five A320 aircraft. I have now informed the airline that they must always keep a spare aircraft to go and pick up passengers if the scheduled aircraft is unavailable.”
Airline sources, however, said it is extremely challenging to keep an extra aircraft on standby in practice given that the fleet is now down to between 18 and 20 serviceable aircraft when the ideal number should be about 24.
“The airline did not recruit pilots, cabin crew, or engineers on time while the existing staff were leaving. For us, we were operating short of crew on almost every flight,” said a cabin crew member who spoke on condition of anonymity. In the end, they were forced to reduce some services owing to fatigue, but the crew member insisted they had ensured that passengers were not inconvenienced due to such actions.
The crew member acknowledged that the recent delays and cancellations, along with scenes of angry passengers criticising the airline, had given SriLankan a bad name, but said whatever bungling has happened was “purely due to the way the government has handled things.”
The source said staff were of the view that SriLankan is still a profitable airline and noted it had carried on without outside funding for the past two years. In such a situation, measures such as giving fifth freedom rights to other airlines cannot be accepted, said the crew member. “What the airline needs is political backing, but unfortunately, that is not there.”
The present situation of multiple flight delays and cancellations could have been avoided if timely decisions had been taken, insisted Hasantha Yasaratne, General Secretary of the SriLankan Airlines Nidahas Sewaka Sangamaya. The union represents ground and frontline staff at the airline. He noted that in early 2022, the airline called for proposals to lease up to 21 aircraft. The move, however, drew intense criticism given the shortages that prevailed at the time, with long queues for fuel, cooking gas, and other essentials. The airline’s management also came under strong criticism from Parliament’s Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) over the move. In December last year, however, the Cabinet approved a proposal to lease up to 11 aircraft because leasing agreements on a similar number of aircraft were due to end in 2023. But by then, it had become extremely difficult to afford new aircraft because travel demand had increased and leases had gone up considerably. “In addition, the country had also declared bankruptcy, so no one was willing to come forward.”
Meanwhile, many pilots and engineers had been lured away to more lucrative positions in foreign airlines. At least some could have been induced to stay on if the government had addressed their grievances, such as the deductions made to their salaries from the PAYE tax and allowances that had been suspended during the pandemic, Mr. Yasaratne said.
He said Minister de Silva’s warning to give fifth-freedom flight status to airlines from other countries to operate from Sri Lanka would only exacerbate the situation. “The government says this is to ensure passengers are not inconvenienced, but if that is its true intention, there are issues within the airline that it can resolve to allow us to provide quality service to passengers.”
A senior airline source, meanwhile, said the management had held meetings with trade unions throughout this week in an attempt to iron out differences and find solutions to their issues. As such, the airline does not expect any further delays due to trade union actions, the official said.
Additional reporting by
T.K.G. Kapila.
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