Mihin proud to have President on board - CEO of Mihin Lanka

Mihin Lanka Chief Sajin de Vass Gunawardena said it was a privilege for the airline to have President Mahinda Rajapaksa on board the flight from London on December 13.

Gunawardena said media reports which indicated that this was Mihin’s first flight to Europe were wrong. Mihin had earlier flown President Rajapaksa and his delegation to Rome, he said.

“As patriotic citizens of this country we are proud to take the President of Sri Lanka on board Mihin Lanka.

We have not only gone to Europe flying the President of our Nation but to India, Maldives, Uganda, Iran, Japan, Rome and England. We don’t take pride in refusing seats for the President of our country, because we are a true Sri Lankan Government owned airline established for the people of Sri Lanka,” he said.

Meanwhile, it is understood that 28 pilots have decided to leave the employment of SriLankan Airlines in January 2008 owing to displeasures they are having with the management headed by CEO Peter Hill.

A source close to the airline said the Government must take a firm stand on this issue and engage these pilots in a discussion so as to address their grievances and restrain them from leaving Sri Lankan.

“Is it that the Emirates Management is seeking to ground the SriLankan Airlines operations and or engaged in arm twisting pending the negotiations between Emirates and the Government of Sri Lanka in respect of the extension of the Management Contract ?,” he asked.

He said in another move, two A340 aircraft whose lease payments were fully completed have been sold by Emirates and re-leased to SriLankan. “What is better for Sri Lankan Air Lines ? To operate its own aircraft or pay millions of dollars for leased aircraft ?,” he asked.

It is pertinent to note that ten years ago when the national carrier, Air Lanka was privatised Air Lanka owned ten (10) aircraft.

Today Sri Lankan owns no aircraft. Aviation sources said when Air Lanka was privatised ten years ago it had around US$ 180 Million dollars as dollar reserve deposits, as against no reserves at all today.

“If the Government of Sri Lanka does not take any action to rectify these and pull back the national airline by March 30, 2008 all that will be left is an airline without key staff and aircraft.”