ECONOMYNEXT – State-owned SriLankan Airlines has cancelled the previous government’s cabinet decision to purchase four wide body A330 Airbus and the company is in the process of negotiating for two new wide body flights, its chairman Sarath Ganegoda said.
Sri Lanka’s previous government in April 2024 approved state-run SriLankan Airlines to acquire 4 wide body aircraft on an operating lease basis, including two from ORIX Aviation for 6 years at a fee of 360,000 dollars and another two from Aergo Capital Limited for 8 years at a fee of 365,000 dollars.
Ganegoda declined to comment on the leasing cost of the latest A330 Airbus that was added to the fleet on Wednesday (04), but said it was done with “favourable terms”.
He said all the deals for wide body aircrafts approved by the previous government’s cabinet have not been proceeded with.
“Yes, currently there is nothing in the pipeline,” Ganegoda told reporters when questioned about the last government’s cabinet decision to acquire four wide body aircrafts.
“But we are negotiating with various parties to acquire a couple of wide bodies.”
The expansion is a plan to capture some profitable routes, he said.
“There are so many profitable routes we can’t connect due to lack of aircrafts. Even this is not sufficient,” he said, referring to acquiring the latest A330 Airbus.
“As per our plan, we will have at least two more aircrafts by the end of this year. If everything goes well, we believe it will be possible,” he said.
“We have left out so many profitable routes like Beijing-Colombo and Nairobi-Colombo, that’s one of the best connections to Australia. So several very profitable routes, we can’t connect because of a lack of aircrafts.” (Colombo/June 04/2025)
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