I didn’t want to compromise Gov ernment reputation– Peter Hill

Emirates-seconded SriLankan Airlines CEO and senior executives explain to Board of Directors the true sequence of events over the fiasco of alleged refusal to fly President Mahinda Rajapakse and his entourage from semi private visit to London

Recently the Ministry of Aviation requested Chairman of SriLankan Airlines Harry Jayawardena to submit an explanation over the airline’s action with regard to the alleged refusal to accommodate President Mahinda Rajapakse and his entourage returning to Colombo from a semi-private visit to London in mid December. The Emirates-seconded CEO of the national carrier Peter Hill, whose work permit and visa was withdrawn by the Government, has submitted the management’s explanation to the SriLankan Board. In support of his explanation, Mr. Hill, who left the country last week and continues to operate as CEO from Dubai, has included separate submissions by at least four other senior executives. These submissions give a clearer idea to the background as well as put in context the course of action on the part of Sri Lankan Airlines

CEO Peter Hill
1. Summary of the action taken by our Commercial Division
(i) The initial enquiry received from the Government of Sri Lanka, via their co-ordinator Mr. Sajin de Vass Gunawardena, Chief Executive Officer, Mihin Lanka, was via email on the morning of Tuesday 4th December, requesting schedule information on our services from London to Colombo on 13th/14th December.

(ii) Later on 4th December a further e-mail was received from Mr. Sajin de Vass Gunawardena to book the entire Business class (J/C) and the forward Economy Class (Y/C) Cabin, for a group of 35 VVIP passengers (a total of 50 seats) on UL 506/13 Dec.

(iii) A further e-mail was received from Mr. Sajin de Vass Gunawardena on 5th December advising that he had made a mistake and now wanted the flight changed to UL 502/13 Dec.

(iv) Mr. Sajin de Vass Gunawardena was advised later on 5th December that we were unable to accommodate this VVIP party as all flights for this date and indeed all flights around this period were fully booked and had been for many weeks. Mr. Sajin de Vass Gunawardena was further informed that we would seek alternative flights via the Middle East in an effort to find seats for these VVIP’s.

(v) On 6th December Mr. Sajin de Vass Gunawardena was informed that after much searching we were able to secure seats for this VVIP party on UL 2016/13 Dee (5 First Class/4 Business Class and 27 Economy Class). This was a code share flight operated by Emirates from London Gatwick to Dubai, where we hoped to make arrangements with Mihin Lanka (MJ) to transport the party from Dubai to Colombo. This proposal was totally rejected by Mr. Sajin de Vass Gunawardena.

(vi) Meanwhile our Schedules Planning Dept. was examining all options available to us, to operate an extra flight to London Heathrow to bring the VVIP party to Colombo on 13th December. With our system wide seat factor running at over 80% during the month of December, the only possibility that was identified was to operate a flight into Heathrow during the night curfew period, but this was refused by the UK Authorities.

(vii) No further contact was made to our Commercial Division staff by Mr. Sajin de Vass Gunawardena or any other Government of Sri Lanka Officials that I am aware of, and when it became known that Mihin Lanka were planning to operate a service from London to Colombo, no further action was taken.

2. Additional background information
(i) Sources at the British High Commission confirmed that the dates and ground arrangements for H.E. the President’s private visit to the UK, which they were co-ordinating were known several months in advance. They had continually asked the President’s Office to confirm the air travel arrangements knowing that flights from London to Colombo would be heavily booked due to seasonal demand.

(ii) At the time the first request to book seats from Mr. Sajin de Vass Gunawardena was received (4th December) all SriLankan Airlines flights from London to Colombo, for the period 13th - 15th December had been fully booked for weeks. This also applied to all other airlines serving Colombo from the U.K, via an intermediate point in the Middle East.

(iii) Despite claims made by the Government of Sri Lanka Officials, in particular Chairmanl Director General of BOI in interviews with the media, SriLankan Airlines had never confirmed, or promised to confirm seats on its flights from London to Colombo, on 13th, 14th or 15th December on behalf of H.E. the President’s private party to Mr. Sajin de Vass Gunawardena or any other official of the Government of Sri Lanka.

(iv) The only alternative option that we were able to offer - 35 seats on EK 016/UL 2016 LGW/DXB with onward on Mihin Lanka DXB/CMB was dismissed by Mr. Sajin de Vass Gunawardena as unacceptable.

(v) Despite reports circulating in the media to the contrary, all SriLankan Airlines flights on 13/14/15 December departed LHR fully booked.

(vi) At no time we were requested to provide a smaller number of seats to at least accommodate H.E. the President and his immediate family. This certainly might have been difficult but possible; however, Mr. Sajin de Vass Gunawardena all the time insisted that the whole party must travel together.

(vii) I received a call from Chairman during his visit to Tokyo on 8th Dec saying that H.E. the President was upset that we were “refusing to accommodate his party on UL502/13 Dec” I explained to Chairman the reason for this and the ramifications of offloading 35-50 booked and ticketed passengers in London in the middle of the pre Christmas rush. I mentioned that it might be possible to secure a couple of seats for H.E. the President, if absolutely necessary, but certainly not the whole party. I received no further word on this and then came to hear during the days that followed that Mihin Lanka were providing an aircraft.

3. Conclusion
The whole unfortunate saga could have been avoided if only those responsible for making H.E. the President’s travel arrangements had acted in a timely manner. Attempting to book 18J/17Y seats (indeed the whole of the J cabin + forward Y cabin, totaling 50 seats if Mr. Sajin de Vass Gunawardena’s demand was to be satisfied) was impossible to deliver in early December without offloading fare paying, booked, Commercial passengers.

The outcry that would have resulted from offloading such a large number of mainly foreign nationals, at the main U.K. airport, to accommodate H.E. the President’s private party would have been unbelievable. The media, consumer and other pressure groups would have had a field day. The reputation of the Government of Sri Lanka, and not least the national carrier would have suffered irreparable damage which I as Chief Executive Officer of SriLankan Airlines was not prepared to compromise.
Annexure (a) Report from Mr. Amith Wijayasuriya, Sales Manager Government Travel Annexure (b) Report from Mr. Suranga Manoj Perera, Manager Revenue Optimisation Annexure (c) Report from Mr. N Prabaharan, Regional Manager UK, Europe and Americas Annexure (d) Report from Mr. Manoj Gunawardena, Head of World Wide Passenger Sales.

Amith Wijayasuriya, Sales Manager Government Travel
Incident on VVIP seat requests for LON-CMB sector on 13th December 2007

On 4th December 2007 at 9.36 am I received an email from Mr. Sajin Vass Gunawardena Requesting the flight details of flights departing on 13th and 14th from London either direct or via Male. I replied to this Email immediately by giving flight schedules as requested.
At 3.35 p.m. on the same day, I received another email from Mr. Sajin Vass Gunawardena advising me “will take the 13th December flight UL 506. Please ensure the entire business class cabin and the economy part of the cabin which is immediately after the business class cabin (separated by the galley) is reserved as we have a total of 35 pax traveling.”

Immediately I contacted Manager Revenue Optimisation to check the availability of the referred flight.

On 5th December (the next day) at 1228 p.m., I received an email from Mr. Sajin Vass Gunawardena informing me that he has made a mistake, therefore whether it is possible to take UL 502 departing at 2155 hrs on 13th Dec via Male. He wanted this flight confirmed by return mail.
After this e mail, I kept Mr. Chandana De Silva HOCC (Head of Corporate Communications) and Mr. N Prabaharan Acting HOWPS (Head of World Wide Passenger Sales) informed on the requirement of the particular flight.

I did sit with acting HOWPS and Revenue Management to seek ways and means of ·accommodating the VVIP party on board of the requested flight (UL 502 on 13th December).

Three of us in consultation with Mr Manoj Gunawardena HOWPS (on telephone as he was on leave) went through all possible options that we could think of. The only option that was available at the time was communicated to Mr Sajin Vas Gunawardena by myself under the direction of acting HOWPS and HOWPS.

The option I communicated was UL 2016 operated by EK from Gatwick to DXB where we were successful of obtaining (6 first class seats, 2 business class seats and 16 economy class seats.) with the suggestion DXB/CMB sector by Mihin Air, as they have a scheduled flight to DXB on the same night. (Earliest scheduled UL flight to DXB connecting the Emirates flight was a day later)

This communication was sent to Mr. Sajin Vass Gunawardena on 6th December 2007. Since there was no response to my email I called Mr. Gunawardena on his mobile phone and at that time he informed me that he does not want the option given.

After that call I did not receive any communication from Mr. Sajin Vass Gunawardena.

N. Prabaharan Regional Manager, UK, Europe & America
Incident report on the group request ULS02/13 December
On 4th December, as acting for Head of Worldwide Passenger Sales, I was informed by Amith Wijayasuriya - Sales Manager GOVT TRAVEL, regarding the VVIP group.

On 5th December I was updated on the new travel requirements and in connection with this I took the following course of action:

1. I directed Revenue Management Department to first look for possible cancellation of booked passengers on both UL 506 and 502 on 13th December, in order to clear as many seats as possible for this party. In particular UL 502/13December had 17 passengers booked London to Male and 1 passenger booked London to Colombo in Business class. Revenue Management informed me that their checks could not cancel any passenger as all have been booked, confirmed and ticketed.

2. In the event this was not possible, I instructed Revenue Management to seek ways to re accommodate passengers, who would have to be denied boarding, if the group of 35 were to be accommodated.
I did this, as in EU, to passengers who are denied boarding, airlines are legally bound to compensate and to provide rerouting under comparable transportation conditions to their final destination at the earliest opportunity.

3. Therefore I gave instruction to Revenue Management Department to explore possibility to clear seats for 35 passengers [including 18 Business class] on the next SriLankan flights out of UK to the Maldives. Revenue Management Department confirmed to me that flights UL 502/13Dec, UL 502/14Dec and UL 502/15Dec were all fully booked, ticketed and confirmed.

4. Then I instructed Revenue Management Department to seek possibility of accommodating passengers who would have been denied boarding on other airlines. After an exhaustive search of possibly taking passengers over Dubai or Doha, Revenue Management confirmed that there are no seats available on other airlines up to the weekend [16th Dec]

5. Given that there were no other option but to transfer passengers who were booked and reconfirmed at that time, I requested Revenue Management to seek possibility of accommodating his group of 35 at least up to Dubai, so that they [VVIP party] can make alternate arrangements from Dubai to Colombo.

6. These seats too were found after protracted coordination with Emirates. That too, flights out of London Gatwick.

7. Meanwhile, we continued coordinating with Emirates to clear seats on flight EK 2006 [out of London Heathrow], till Sales Manager - Govt travel informed me that this option [Travelling to Dubai and connecting] was not acceptable to the VVIP party.

8. It is evident that I have taken all steps to accommodate this group. However due to the lack of option to transfer 35 passengers where there were no availability on other airlines, any possible solution could not be arrived.

Suranga Manoj Perera, Manager Revenue Optimisation
Incident on VVIP group seat request LON-CMB sector on 13th December 2007

I received the request on 5 December 2007 through the Sales Manager Government Travel and instructed my staff accordingly, who took the following immediate actions liaising with the Head Office and LON Reservation Services, Flight-checks were done for all the booked passengers for cancellations in the requested UL502/13Dec scheduled flight and UL506 alternate. We found that all the passengers were booked well in advance, re-confirmed and ticketed (17 LON­MLE and 1 LON-CMB in the Business Class of UL502). We could not release a single seat in the Business Class cabin after doing the flight checks.

Liaised with other Airlines to re-accommodate LON-MLE UL passengers in UL502/13Dec. All the Airlines informed that there are no seats to MLE.
We went even further to check the next day flights in case if we were to accommodate offloading passengers on UL502/14Dec and UL502/15Dec. However the flights were also full and all the passengers were already ticketed. All LON-MLE flights were peak departures and these flights departed with 100% seat factors 01) the scheduled days.

Since there were no options for re-routing LON-MLE passengers via any point on any Airline on 13, 14, 15 December 07,under the instructions of acting Head of World Wide Sales we looked at the possibilities of accommodating the group on at least part of their itinerary. Thus liaised with Emirates Airline to bring them up to Dubai and seek alternate transportation from Dubai to Colombo.

The first option we tried was to get seats from LHR to DXB. Liaised with EK Revenue Optimisation to get seats in UL2006 LHR-DXB flight but could not get the confirmations. The only option we could get seats was from LGW to DXB on UL2016 LGW -DXB flight and succeeded in securing 5 First Class, 4 Business Class and 27 Economy Class seats.

Therefore informed acting Head of World wide Passenger Sales and Sales Manager Government Travel on the seat confirmations, and under the instructions continued to seek re accommodation on UL2006.

Due to the inability of transferring a large group in the midst of zero availability of First! Business Class seats, we could not offer the requested itinerary and the number of seats to the VVIP group.
Manoj Gunawardena, Head of Worldwide Passenger Sales
Incident on the group seat request (including VVIP) out of London 13th December 2007

I was on annual leave during the period up to 10 December (from 25 November) as such my involvement with this incident was issuing instructions to Acting HOWPS Mr. Prabaharan and Sales Manager Government Travel Mr. Wijayasuriya on telephone and offering advice where necessary

On 05 December Acting HOWPS Mr. Prabaharan informed me of the requirement of 35 seats (18 Business class and 17 in Economy class) on UL502 of 13 Dec.

I instructed Mr. Prabaharan to follow the process given below in order to accommodate this group

1. Carry out flight checks on all flights ex LON from 13 Dec through to 16 Dec in order to identify any booking which can be cancelled, so that the party can be accommodated

2. To seek the possibility’ of getting seats on other airlines to accommodate passengers who will be displace if we were to accept the group

On 06 December morning Mr. Prabaharan reported to me that the reservation checks could not single out any bookings for cancellation as they were ticketed and reconfirmed. He also informed me that they have not been able to get a single seat on other airlines to Maldives in order to accommodate passengers who could have been denied boarding had we accepted the party

I instructed him to persist with Emirates at least to get a part of the itinerary covered (London to Dubai) so that a mutual arrangement can be made with Mihin Lanka to adjust their scheduled departure out of Dubai to Colombo.

Mr. Prabaharan called me back reporting to me that the only flight in which they were able to obtain seats were UL2016 (operated by Emirates) ex London Gatwick to Dubai. I requested Mr. Prabaharan to persist with the request to get seats on UL2006 (operated by Emirates)
Then I instructed Mr. Wijayasuriya to respond to the email received from Mr. Sajin de Vass Gunawardena giving the option ofUL2016 for which seats were secured.

Meanwhile I did request the schedules planning dept to see the possibility of operating an additional flight in to London on the 13, the only option they could come up was the extension of the scheduled Colombo Dammam flight - which meant that the aircraft would have had to land and take off at London Heathrow during curfew hours. I checked the possibility of applying for dispensation to land and take off during curfew with Krishan Perera (Regional Airport Service Manager Europe) who informed me that it is not possible to obtain dispensation for both, it has to be either a landing or a take off. Since that restriction is in place this option was shelved.

On 10th of December on my return to work Mr. Wijayasuriya informed me that the option offered to Mr. Sajin de Vass Gunawardena has not been taken up.

This is my report on the incident, reports from Mr. Wijayasuriya (Sales Manager Government Travel), Mr. Prabaharan (Acting Head of Worldwide Passenger Sales) and Suranga Perera (Manager Revenue Optimisation) too are submitted.

You would see from the above and from the reports given by others that every possible action has been taken to accommodate the group and every possible option has been pursued by them.

Failure to accommodate the group was due to the fact that there were “no options whatsoever to accommodate passengers who would have been denied boarding” as a result of accommodating the group. The concern for denied boarding passengers were not only from a customer service point of view but was also stemming from airline’s legal obligations - the obligation on the airline to offer a rerouting under comparable conditions at the earliest opportunity

In addition we even sought the possibility of operating another flight to match the requirement; this too however was stymied by conditions beyond our control.