Neither-Here-Nor-There strategy by SriLankan

( Photo by Premshree Pillai )

SriLankan Airlines, since the control changed hands in April, has been steadily focused on cutting its frequencies and minimizing utilization, if you look closely.

Singapore and Kuala Lampur, which received two daily triangular flights each, now running as a single daily terminator flight, will be reduced only one daily triangular from next IATA Summer timetable.
Dubai, which previously received two daily flights, one terminator and one as a stop on the way to Kuwait, UL225/6 and 227/8 respectively, would see the capacity dwindled to a single daily UL227/8 operated by an A330.

Not to mention the long haul ops, where frequencies to Frankfurt are down to two – from four, and capacity to Paris was slashed down by half by including Rome as a stopover.

Indian ops, which generated a third of the revenue previously, is down to 55-60 weekly frequencies from 110+ past frequencies .

In the coming week, SriLankan would operate only one flight to Singapore for the whole week, if their website’s schedules are correct – I hope not.

With all these reductions, SriLankan has created quite a neither-here-nor-there presence for themselves.

Has the traffic so seriously fallen down ? I don’t think so. Emirates has largerly increased its operations to Colombo, upping the frequencies and replacing all the A330-200 flights with 777-300s and 777-300ERs, each seating 364+ passengers.

Cathay Pacific, even after a suspension of services to Colombo, has grown into 777-300s from A330-300s.
Singapore Airlines now flies a 777-200 everyday oppose to the mix of 777-200 and the smaller A310-300.

So where is the downfall ? Whose fault is this ?
Of UL themselves, let me say.

Peter Hill was able to carry on, and better yet expand, the airline in the epidemic of the worst events in the airline’s history, a Tamil Tiger attack which destroyed half its fleet, 9/11, SARS, Tsunami, fuel prices at historic highs.

So why cannot Manoj Vaas do what Peter Hill did at oil prices of $147, when oil is $36 now ?

May be Manoj is a better CEO, he decided that UL does not need any kind of advertising and those money should be saved, he is a firm believer of ‘credible leadership’ and so appointed the people that he know better for executive positions, he said that no LCC could ever take root under whatever conditions, in a country like Sri Lanka – where there is poor people and so only a full service career would succeed, according to him – but yet, he’s providing the goverment LCC, Mihin Lanka, with advises on how to create a great business plan . After all, he’s the brother of Sajin Vaas, the presidential advisor who was appointed as the CEO of President’s airline and Manoj is the guy, who was promoted from Global Sales Manager – the one responsible for seats – to CEO, while firing the previous CEO when the President and his delegation was not given 35 business class seats on an A340-300 from LON to CMB, which was already full booked . No wonder that he’s gonna sell out and lease back the whole A320 fleet of five a/cs when he has already sought out only two – and his aim is also to replace the five with four – no wonder that Mihin is growing and UL has cut frequencies.

SriLankan recently launched flights to Rome, after being advised by the ministry and is now going to make that operation daily, again following the government’s advise. However – expanding at least on political grounds is a good thing, given the fact that the utilization rate of UL’s fleet has gone down dramatically due to reduced frequencies, but it’s unsure until they launch the operations .

For sure, SriLankan has a really great set of employees – the the kind of people who completely repaired the A340-300, 4R-ADC, which was partially destroyed by terrorist attacks, in just three months when Airbus had already speculated that it’ll take 6-12 months – but the management should improve and they should improve SriLankan.

They have to get out of the political worries and have the responsibility to grow the carrier. They should not let UL go back to the state it was ten years ago – where you’ll be suspensed or fired if you took a decision that didn’t favour the governor. The management and employers should join forces to make SriLankan bigger and better and of course, more profitable. If the government believes Mihin still has the potential, ok, then let it serve unprofitable routes that UL doesn’t serve citing unprofitable – so both carriers could help Sri Lanka grow.

The world is growing, aviation industry is set to come back to black, UL cannot sit back and wait until the others eat up its share.

UL is facing competition on only two Indian routes ( that also only if Kingfisher starts ops ), where it serves eleven destinations ( down to seven from January – due to SriLankan’s fleet sale ), so why not grow without saying that India is a ‘blood-bath’ ( quoted – Manoj Vaas ) ? ? ?
If Emirates can grow into 163 weekly frequencies into India from just 70 previously, why in the world should UL reduce themselves to 55-60 from 100+, when UL was already the biggest operator into and a dominant carrier in India ? ? ?

Why cannot UL grow its Mid East business when most passengers start taking other airlines since SriLankan is suffering from undercapacity ?

Why not expand the fleet and develop Malé as another hub where there is a lot of potential ?

Why not adapt to the trend, rationalize the schedule from this current mess and increase the utilization ?

Why not do some good marketing like when under EK’s management and capture some transit market – that now you are free to grow ?

The fact is that you HAVE TO grow your business by yourselves, you cannot wait until god brings you profit in the airline industry.

SriLankan has to set a footnote of its presence – in an industry where they are already popular thanks to the friendly crew – they have to grow and catch the business – neither-here-not-there doesn’t work.

I don’t understand, I’m not so educated like the officials who believes that they are always correct..
I’m only a citizen, who would love to see SriLankan, Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans growing..

Disclaimer: This article is by any means not any personal attack at anybody and is only a expression of the views of the author – the writer regrets if this article caused any hurts or misunderstandings to anybody. The author would also like to make any changes in this article if SriLankan Airlines provides him with info that the facts stated here are incorrect.
SriLankan Airlines Airbus A340-300s have 18 business class seats .