Peace Air gets SriLankan unions on board in bid for national carrier

Peace Air, which has made a bid of US$ 5.5 billion to acquire SriLankan Airlines is to ink an agreement with all seven unions of the airline soon.

Peace Air Chairman

Gamini Wethasinghe told media in Colombo on Tuesday that this will make one member of the seven airline unions as a member of the Director Board. “This is a new phenomena in the aviation industry that is being practiced all over the world to ensure the smooth running of the airline and we want to introduce this practice to Sri Lanka.”

He said that the seven employee unions have agreed and several members representing the Unions that were present at the event endorsed this. “We are happy to partner with Peace Air in the future,” they said.

Chairman Gamini Wethasinghe said that they would like to work with the Unions in the future as they believe horizontal management is always good.

Director Peace Air, Iresha Wettasinghe said that they have also come to a framework agreement with Lufthansa Consulting, the advisory arm of Germany’s national carrier, Lufthansa Airlines, to perform a due diligence on SriLankan Airlines. “This will be completed in eight weeks and it will help us to iron out all gray areas.”

“We have US $ 5.5 billion (Euro five billion) at our disposal to buy the national carriers, SriLankan and Mihin and have sent a SWIFT via Deutcshe Bank Germany to the National Savings Bank,” she said.

She said they plan to terminate all the current leases of the existing fleet of 21 aircraft through international legal channels and will expand the airline to 50 aircraft. “We are also looking at purchasing two A380 aircraft by July through a regional carrier in Asia.”