Sri Lankan Airlines cuts India flights from 100 to 51 per week

Sri Lankan Airlines, the national airline of Sri Lanka, has reduced the number of its flights to India from 100 flights a week at present to 51 flights a week due to, what the carrier described as, “mounting financial pressure as a result of steep decline in passenger traffic.”

In a statement, Manoj Gunewardena, chief executive officer of Sri Lankan Airlines, said the airline would restore the flights to India once the worldwide economic slowdown showed signs of ending and the number of passengers travelling to destinations in India showed signs of picking up.

India, he added, was an important destination for Sri Lankan Airlines and that the carrier resorted to reducing flights to India as a part of its strategy to cut costs and
realign in order to “conserve cash and maximise yields.”

Sri Lankan Airlines has cancelled flights to Cochin, Calicut, Coimbatore and Hyderabad from its network of routes.

Besides the fall in the number of passengers travelling to destinations in India, the airline’s decision to retire its four aged Airbus A-320 planes aircraft that is used to
fly to India also contributed to cutting the number of flights by about 50%, Gunewardena said.

According to him, though Sri Lankan Airlines inducted two new A 320 aircraft for the carrier’s Indian operations in place of the four retired planes, there still existed a
shortage of planes to fly to Indian destinations.

The first of Sri Lankan’s new Airbus A320 aircraft was brought into service in January 2009 and another A320 was undergoing final checks, Gunewardena said.

A third A320 aircraft would be leased soon.

At present, Sri Lankan Airlines uses five A340 planes and four A330s planes on long-haul routes.

In March 2008, Emirates Airlines, based in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, which was a shareholder in Sri Lankan Airlines, had withdrawn from a pact on management with Sri Lanka’s national airline.

Meanwhile, the website lankabusinessonline.com said in a report that Singapore Airlines, the national airline of Singapore, was vigorously pursuing a plan to expand its operations in India.

To start with, Singapore Airlines will double its daily flights from New Delhi from September 2009. The carrier currently operates nine flights a week from Delhi
using the Boeing 777-200 plane having a three-class configuration.

In addition, SilkAir, the subsidiary regional carrier of Singapore Airlines, is considering launching flights from Visakhapatnam in India – this would be in addition to SilkAir’s daily flights from Kochi, four flights from Thiruvananthapuram, and three flights a week from Coimbatore.