Sri Lanka carriers get together
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Sri Lanka’s state budget carrier Mihin Air is working on a collaborative strategy with full service national carrier SriLankan Airlines, after a management deal with Emirates ends in March, a top official was quoted saying.
“It’s very important after March that SriLankan Airlines and Mihin Lanka work on a common commercial strategy,” Mihin Lanka chief executive Sajin de Vass Gunawardena was quoted saying in an interview with Lanka Business Report.
The report said Mihin wants to share passengers with the national carrier.
“We have to ensure that we don’t compete,” de Vass Gunawardena was quoted saying.
Mihin Lanka competes with Sri Lankan Airlines on six of its seven routes with Buddhagaya in India being the only exception but the two do not have a codeshare agreement.
Set up nine months ago, Mihin Lanka has been losing money on its runs to regional destinations with two aircraft, the report said. The Mihin chief was reportedly against the renewal of the Emirates contract. He cited the case of SriLankan Airlines spending millions developing the Beijing route only to drop it from its summer schedule beginning in April after.
He was quoted saying that passengers traveling to Beijing from Sri Lanka would have to fly though Dubai’s hub airport, which is the Emirates base, in the future.
Earlier this month Emirates, which owns 43% of SriLankan said it won’t renew its management contract and that its equity stake was up for sale.
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