New Delhi, [India], SriLankan Airlines CEO Richard Nuttall said the government is on track to privatize several state-owned enterprises as part of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) program and one of them is the flag carrier of the island nation. Is. ,
Speaking to ANI on Wednesday, Nuttall said, "The government is trying to privatize a number of state-owned enterprises as a part of the IMF programme. One of them is SriLankan Airlines."
Nuttall shared that one of the steps taken in that direction is to help the government balance sheet which will be completed in a month or two.
“There are two parts to this,” the CEO said.One, the government is working to help us with our balance sheet and a lot of work has been done on this and we hope it will be completed in the next one or two months."
Nuttall said the airline is also looking for an investor, adding that three candidates have been finalized and the government is in talks with them.
"And then the other side is looking for an investor. The expression of interest was completed in April and there were six candidates. Now that has been narrowed down to three.So the government is now talking to three different entities and we will see what happens from there," he said.
The CEO shared that no Indian company has shown interest in investing in Sri Lankan Airlines, but there are some Indians in a consortium.
"There are no Indian companies, but one of them is a consortium that we understand has some Indians in it," Nutter said.
Responding to a question about an update on SriLankan Airlines’ expansion plans, Nuttall said, “At the moment, our fleet is 21. We are looking forward to growing it.Next month it should increase to 22. We are looking at acquiring three more aircraft within the coming twelve months, taking our number to 25. So if you look, we also have some aircraft that we are replacing with engines, so that's about a 50 percent increase at the end of this year."
The CEO further said that the expansion will be through increased frequencies to existing destinations rather than adding new destination cities.
“And I think the expansion we will get from this will not be new cities, but it will be increasing frequencies to existing destinations, especially in India and South East Asia.,
Nuttall said that during the economic downturn the island nation is facing, more people are moving to work abroad, which helps the airline.
“If one looks at Sri Lanka, the two biggest sources of currency for the country come from the diaspora, Sri Lankans working abroad and tourism. So actually when you have an economic recession, more people go abroad So it's a natural escape, so it's good for the airline and we can help the economic development of the country by supporting people who want to go abroad and work,” the CEO said.Nuttall highlighted that the tourism sector has recovered and is back to pre-COVID times. He said that the Indian market has tripled in the last year.
“When it comes to tourism, actually tourism has come back very rapidly in Sri Lanka. So tourism is now back to where it was pre-Covid. And if we look at the Indian market, I think The Indian market has tripled in the last twelve months we were doing around 1,012 thousand per month last year and now we are close to 40,000,” the CEO said.“And more than 20 per cent of the tourists coming to Sri Lanka are Indians. And you know, realistically, when we look at the size of the population here and we look at the growing economy, we think 40,000 per month We think that number could increase," Nuttall said.
Speaking to ANI on Wednesday, Nuttall said, "The government is trying to privatize a number of state-owned enterprises as a part of the IMF programme. One of them is SriLankan Airlines."
Nuttall shared that one of the steps taken in that direction is to help the government balance sheet which will be completed in a month or two.
“There are two parts to this,” the CEO said.One, the government is working to help us with our balance sheet and a lot of work has been done on this and we hope it will be completed in the next one or two months."
Nuttall said the airline is also looking for an investor, adding that three candidates have been finalized and the government is in talks with them.
"And then the other side is looking for an investor. The expression of interest was completed in April and there were six candidates. Now that has been narrowed down to three.So the government is now talking to three different entities and we will see what happens from there," he said.
The CEO shared that no Indian company has shown interest in investing in Sri Lankan Airlines, but there are some Indians in a consortium.
"There are no Indian companies, but one of them is a consortium that we understand has some Indians in it," Nutter said.
Responding to a question about an update on SriLankan Airlines’ expansion plans, Nuttall said, “At the moment, our fleet is 21. We are looking forward to growing it.Next month it should increase to 22. We are looking at acquiring three more aircraft within the coming twelve months, taking our number to 25. So if you look, we also have some aircraft that we are replacing with engines, so that's about a 50 percent increase at the end of this year."
The CEO further said that the expansion will be through increased frequencies to existing destinations rather than adding new destination cities.
“And I think the expansion we will get from this will not be new cities, but it will be increasing frequencies to existing destinations, especially in India and South East Asia.,
Nuttall said that during the economic downturn the island nation is facing, more people are moving to work abroad, which helps the airline.
“If one looks at Sri Lanka, the two biggest sources of currency for the country come from the diaspora, Sri Lankans working abroad and tourism. So actually when you have an economic recession, more people go abroad So it's a natural escape, so it's good for the airline and we can help the economic development of the country by supporting people who want to go abroad and work,” the CEO said.Nuttall highlighted that the tourism sector has recovered and is back to pre-COVID times. He said that the Indian market has tripled in the last year.
“When it comes to tourism, actually tourism has come back very rapidly in Sri Lanka. So tourism is now back to where it was pre-Covid. And if we look at the Indian market, I think The Indian market has tripled in the last twelve months we were doing around 1,012 thousand per month last year and now we are close to 40,000,” the CEO said.“And more than 20 per cent of the tourists coming to Sri Lanka are Indians. And you know, realistically, when we look at the size of the population here and we look at the growing economy, we think 40,000 per month We think that number could increase," Nuttall said.
