SriLankan Airlines celebrated the loyalty of hundreds of its longest-serving staff with a ‘Celebration of Excellence’ at the Water’s Edge in Colombo recently.
Of the 2,148 employees recruited during SriLankan’s first year in existence, nearly 10% remain with the airline, said the national carrier in a press release. As many as 171 employees have served the company since its inception, it said.
An employee(left) being rewarded |
“There aren’t many companies anywhere in the world which have such a high percentage of its founding employees with them after 30 years. This speaks volumes of the quality of both SriLankan Airlines and its staff,” said the airline’s Chairman Nishantha Wickremasinghe.
Long-standing staff comes from categories as diverse as pilots, cabin crew, security officers, aircraft engineers, accountants, ground staff and are also serving in 17 of the airline’s overseas offices from London to Singapore. The veteran staff also includes many of the airline’s heads of divisions and senior managers whose careers have progressed in the company.
“Every one of us is proud to have served our national carrier, which has carried the Sri Lankan flag around the world since 1979, and has instilled in all of us a sense of loyalty and patriotism,” said one of the airline’s founding staff and Head of Service Delivery, Captain Milinda Ratnayake.
Mementoes and certificates were presented to 687 employees who completed 30, 25, 20, 15, and 10 years in 2009/10, with the 30-year awards being presented for the first time in the airline’s history.
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