Mihin Air, the government's budget carrier, in revival mode at present has said it will repay Rs 100 million borrowed from SriLankan Airlines under a repayment plan, according to officials.
"They owed us Rs. 100 million and have assured that it will be paid,” Manoj Gunawardena, CEO SriLankan Airlines told The Sunday Times FT. He said under the repayment plan, the borrowed money will be returned within a year.
When asked where Mihin figures in the SriLankan equation, Mr Gunawardena said the national carrier has always been ready for a commercial partnership with the budget carrier. However, he admitted that there are two obstacles to this. "Mihin sells through a computer system, which is not part of the global system which we run on. If the two of us are to have a commercial partnership, it has to be done through a common platform," he explained.
Mr. Gunewardena said the two are currently cooperating in a restricted manner. "There is scope for a limited partnership, but the two companies will 'always' be distinct entities," he added. He said that SriLankan will not manage Mihin, but if required by the authorities, he is quite happy to provide some form of commercial planning input.
Mr. Gunawardena also mentioned that SriLankan Airlines in a bid to eliminate some of the negative perceptions has come up with new strategies. He said there is a perception that SriLankan is expensive. “This is partly true because we are the only direct airline between two points and we adopted a premium pricing policy. But this is good when there is a healthy demand. While this has worked for us in the past, we now need to address this perception,” he said.
He explained, “Especially during these economic times, the credit squeeze is felt by the Sri Lankan expatriates who have always looked at us as the first choice, but now due to the price it is the last choice.”
He said the good operating conditions that the airline has achieved in terms of better fuel management, productivity based cabin crew, effective cost structure, etc need to be passed on to the customers and be less costly.
|
E-mail