Parliament begins debate on loss making, debt-saddled SriLankan Airlines

By Ashwin Hemmathagama – Our Lobby Correspondent

Loss making SriLankan Airlines and its fate came up yesterday in Parliament with the UNP MP Nalin Bandara Jayamaha charging the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa for prematurely terminating the agreement with Emirates and appointing Nishantha Wickramasinghe as the Chairman.

Moving the Adjournment Motion on the Present Situation of SriLankan Airline Ltd. and its future, MP Jayamaha said: “The key reason for the loss burden was Nishantha Wickramasinghe who was appointed Chairman of the SriLankan Airlines. He is the brother-in-law of then President. Nishantha was engaged in the plantation sector and didn’t even have G.C.E. Ordinary Level qualifications.”

Highlighting the profits made under the management of Emirates and the losses under Rajapaksa regime, the MP Jayamaha said: “SriLankan Airlines is the successor of the Air Ceylon. The agreement with Emirates was for a period of 10 years. But under the Emirates management SriLankan made a profit of Rs.1,273 million in 1998/99. This was increased to Rs.3,661 million in 1999/2000. During financial year 2000/01 the profit increased to Rs.4,735 million. Ever since profits were seen growing till the agreement was terminated by making a payment of US$53 million.

“”Under Nishantha Wickramasinghe Rs.9,306 million was the loss of the airline in 2008/09. The losses kept increasing till Rs.461 billion. Let me take the Lotus Tower as the example. It is constructed at a cost of Rs.14 billion. So, we could have built 33 Lotus Towers across the island if we had that money lost in SriLanka Airlines. Colombo – Katunayake Highway was allocated Rs.46 billion. We could have built 10 such highways if we had that money. We could have built two Port City projects or 17 airports similar to Mattala from that money lost in SriLankan Airlines. We could have done 9 harbours similar to Hambantota if the money was there. This is what was lost during the Rajapaksa regime. The SriLankan Airlines loss alone places a debt burden of Rs.23,061 on every citizen,” he added.

UNP MP Ashu Marasinghe seconded the motion.