Sri Lankan halves flights to India
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State-run national carrier, Sri Lankan Airlines, has slashed flights to India from 100 a week to 51, as part of a cost-cutting strategy and realigning of services.
Lanka Business Online, quoting the airline’s Chief Executive, Manoj Gunewardena, said in the first quarter of the financial year starting March 2008, the airline had lost almost US$50 million on core airline operations. In March 2008, Emirates Airline, a shareholder, pulled out of a management deal with Sri Lankan. Gunewardena took over after that, and started cutting costs.
Gunewardena said competition on Indian routes had become “cut throat”. 100 flights a week were cut to 70 and then to 51 in the summer schedule which runs until October.
“This is done to consolidate, to stem our losses, not get into a battle where we would bleed in terms of pricing,” Gunewardena was quoted saying.
Kochi, Kozhikode, Coimbatore and Hyderabad were dropped from the route network. According to Gunewardena, the destinations mostly brought traffic to the Middle East and Far East.
Indian destinations that generate traffic to and from Sri Lanka have been maintained.
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