From dates to kavum: SriLankan begins a new journey sans the Emirs

• All night pirith on March 31 as Emirates management agreement expires
  
• Cabin crew announce ‘dawn of a new era’
  
• President to address staff at K’nayake tomorrow
  
• UL serves kiribath on board
  
• LMD survey cites gross govt. mishandling of Emirates crisis

By Dharisha Bastians
All SriLankan Airlines flights served kiribath and kavum on board to celebrate the fact that the management of the airline had been transferred back to the government of Sri Lanka as of midnight on Monday (31).
Cabin crew announced the management change on board and said it was the beginning of a new era for the national carrier.

An all night pirith ceremony was also conducted on Monday night to mark the transfer of power, and all SriLankan staff were served kiribath and sweetmeats for breakfast yesterday. Multi-religious ceremonies were also held yesterday morning.

Staff were also instructed to participate in the company’s new ‘clean desk’ policy, with management requesting all staff members to clear their desks in preparation for April 1. New committees have also been set up comprising senior management representatives, to study and minimize all flight delays occurring the previous day. As per the new system, the committee will meet to discuss yesterday’s flight delays this morning. According to informed airline sources, the new directives are being implemented in accordance with the business plan drawn up by former consultant and current director Lalith Silva in the run up to the expiration of the management agreement with Emirates on March 31.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa will address all Katunayake based SriLankan staff tomorrow morning during another ceremony to celebrate the government regaining control of the national carrier.

Dubai’s Emirates Airlines said on Sunday that it would stop sharing routes with SriLankan when its decade-long management contract expired on March 31.

“Code share arrangements between Emirates and SriLankan Airlines will cease from 31st March 2008 with the expiry of the management agreement,” Emirates said in a statement.

   Meanwhile, speculation is also rife that the appointment of Treasury Secretary P.B. Jayasundera as chairman of SriLankan Airlines is a temporary one with the government making efforts to recruit several other individuals for the position. The Bottom Line reliably learns that former Ceylon Tobacco Company director, Jayampathy Bandaranayake has been approached by the government, but he has declined the offer. Brother in law to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and board member Nishantha Wickremasinghe has also reportedly turned down the invitation by the government.

The government meanwhile in continuous public announcements throughout last week reiterated that it had a complete business plan for the airline and would ensure its profitability and sustainability in the long term.

Meanwhile leading business magazine LMD recently commissioned TNS Lanka to gauge the reaction on the streets to the handling of the SriLankan Airlines dispute with Emirates, only to find that two-thirds of the respondents believe that the former CEO of SriLankan Airlines made the right decision when he refused to offload 35 business-class passengers to make way for the President and his entourage at London Heathrow not long ago.

 “Passengers are required to reserve and confirm their seats early, they point out, and Hill played by the rules,” LMD reports in its April edition.

It adds: “Predictably, there were the naysayers… around 20 per cent of those polled believe that the head of state should have been treated differently, while 40 per cent say that the national carrier would be better off under state management, citing  ‘mediation from the Government and ‘good management’.”

The BOI takes some flak for its role in the dispute, too, with almost 60 per cent of TNS Lanka’s sample population denouncing its request to revoke Hill’s work permit and visa at such short notice. And almost half those polled (47%) blame the BOI for what transpired.

So, who can run our national carrier effectively? The LMD-TNS Lanka poll asked. Apparently, 46 per cent feel that “the future of SriLankan Airlines would be most secure in the hands of a management team comprising experienced Sri Lankan professionals”, whilst 35 per cent believe that the Government should guide the airline out of presently turbulent skies.