Sri Lanka jet fuel shortages costing SriLankan Airlines US$7mmn a month

A shortage of jet fuel in the country due to forex shortages is costing the state-run SriLankan Airlines an extra 7 million US dollars a month, though the airline is operating most of its schedule, an official said. “Now we are running 90% of our flights even though there is no fuel in the country which is costing us about 7 million US dollars per month in extra and lost revenue,” Richard Nuttall, the Chief Commercial Officer of SriLanka Airlines told Economy Next at the sidelines of a media brief. “To carry the extra fuel, we can’t carry all the freight we like to into the country.” SriLankan Airlines was stopping at third countries like India to load up on fuel for long haul destinations. Carrying fuel for the return journey, a tactic known as tinkering, forces an airline to cut down freight. The hit from fuel came after the airline SriLankan reported a profit of 1.7 million US dollars in the March 2022 quarter for the first time since 2006, after cutting costs such as staff costs and overheads; renegotiating supplier contracts and increasing cargo revenue. Nuttall said few months ago they were not sure of even operating 30-40 percent of the flights due to lack of sufficient jet fuel in the country.<br/>