Bankrupt Sri Lanka seems to amplify airline fleet

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka’s loss-making national carrier announced plans Thursday to lease up to 21 plane, just two days after the authorities introduced a default on its $fifty one billion overseas debt.

The island kingdom is inside the grip of its maximum painful financial downturn since independence in 1948, with extreme shortages of important items and everyday blackouts inflicting massive misery.

Huge protests have referred to as for the resignation of the authorities, which has begged Sri Lankans overseas to ship cash home to help pay for important imports.

Despite the continued crisis, kingdom-owned Sri Lankan Airlines has unveiled plans to enlarge its fleet from 24 to 35 in the next 3 years and update some of its ageing jets.

“Sri Lankan Airlines has issued four requests for proposal to lease up to 21 aircraft to support its long-term business strategy,” it said in a brief statement.

The announcement came after the government suspended repayment of all its foreign borrowings, ahead of negotiations for a debt restructure with the International Monetary Fund next week.

The national carrier did not say how it planned to finance the leases, with its balance sheet showing a $1.7 billion debt and a carried forward loss of $1.56 billion in March 2021.

The IMF has also repeatedly urged Sri Lanka to privatise the airline, saying it was a white elephant the country cannot afford.

The airline was profitable before the government cancelled a management agreement with Emirates of Dubai in 2008, following a personal dispute with current Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The carrier had refused to bump fare-paying passengers and give their seats to members of Rajapaksa’s family, who were returning from a holiday in London.

Rajapaksa eliminated the Emirates-appointed leader executive of Sri Lankan Airlines and made his brother-in-regulation Nishantha Wickremasinghe head of the agency.

An earlier plan to rent 8 Airbus A350 jets for the duration of Rajapaksa’s tenure is subject to an ongoing crook research.

The airline’s then-chief executive Kapila Chandrasena and his spouse had been arrested years in the past after an international research found they acquired as a minimum $2 million in kickbacks over the order.