Minister warns on SriLankan Airlines' partial privatisation

Sri Lanka's aviation minister has warned more aircraft at state-owned SriLankan Airlines may be grounded if the government cannot get stakeholders, particularly employee groups and unions, to agree to government plans to sell a minority stake in the carrier. The warning comes as the Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation, Nimal Siripala de Silva, revealed plans to get the expression of interest (EOI) process up and running as soon as November. This week, de Silva told Ada Derana's State of the Nation current affairs show that if the partial privatisation of the airline didn't go through, it wasn't the Sri Lankan government that would suffer, it would be the trade unions, pilots, engineers, and cabin crews that suffered. "If there is no taker, then we will have to ground aircraft at some time or other," he said, adding that under existing Sri Lankan law, the government cannot sell off all of the airline. Instead, it intends to sell a 49% stake and form a joint venture agreement with the buyer. "We can't run the airline (ourselves). We need a capital injection of at least USD500 million to make the airline viable. The government has no money to do that and no intention of paying that because we feel the correct policy is to enter into a joint venture and get the necessary capital. de Silva said SriLankan had 19 operational aircraft, which correlates with ch-aviation fleets advanced data. The airline has a single A320-200N, two A321-200Ns, and one A330-200 parked, although ch-aviation is aware the A330 is not operating because it is out of lease and going back to the lessor. The minister said attempts to procure additional A330s have been unsuccessful, although the airline had managed to lease some additional A320 types. All of SriLankan's fleet is leased. de Silva confirmed that the government has yet to call for expressions of interest in the minority stake but says he is getting unsolicited inquiries ahead of formal announcements.<br/>