SriLankan to Sell and Leaseback 3 A330s
Giving a clear signal of the dire state the airline is in, SriLankan Airlines has agreed a sale and leaseback deal for three of its four Airbus A330 fleet.
4R-ALD, one of SriLankan’s four A330s
The deal comes in the wake of the airline’s record loss of $100m after it fell into government hands.
The Airbus A330 was the only fleet type in SriLankan’s fleet that it fully owned and this latest transaction will leave the total assets SriLankan own to a single A320 and an A330.
The deal will take place with Pembroke Aviation of U.K, which is owned by the Standard Chartered Bank. Registrations of the involved aircraft are not clear, however I believe 4R-ALD, the youngest A330, is not included in this list as the airline was in an attempt to lease it out sometime ago.
Remainings of 4R-ALE after the terrorist attack
The A330s are 1999-2000 vintage aircraft and were part of a nine aircraft order that was placed in 1998 . Six aircraft were delivered by 2001, however the latest two aircraft 4R-ALE and 4R-ALF were destroyed in July 2001 by Tamil Tiger Terrorists. This eventually led to Emirates taking delivery of the remaining three A330s that were due for delivery.
The current A330 fleet details are as follows
4R-ALA MSN 303 Delivered 26 Oct 1999
4R-ALB MSN 306 Delivered 15 Nov 1999
4R-ALC MSN 311 Delivered 10 Dec 1999
4R-ALD MSN 313 Delivered 12 Jan 2000
Sale and Leaseback deals are ordinary in the airline industry, but this deal can be clearly identified as an attempt of liquidating the assets to generate cash in order for the airline to run a few extra days.
Three of SriLankan’s five A340 fleet were sold to Veling of Mauritius in 2007 while the other two are on lease.
This website had brought facts on SriLankan’s current state on many articles and represented a few suggestions to bring the airline back into the black. However, very unfortunately, the management does not seem to be interested in anything other than political vanity – which is clear from spending Rs.60m to change the airline’s uniform to the government’s political colour. The management will also be replacing SriLankan’s ‘peacock’ badge in uniforms with Mihin Lanka’s ‘lotus’ logo from November onwards. The company employees are in an ongoing dispute with the management over these matters and this includes continuing to employ 35 expatriate pilots at higher wages while refusing to employ type rated local pilots.
This S&L news came while I was writing another article on what has to be done to make SriLankan profitable again, out of the hurt to see what is happening to a beloved national carrier, which I will publish soon .
No Comments