SriLankan Airlines has downsized contract staff but no decision has been taken to suspend salaries of permanent employees, Chairman of the national carrier Ashok Pathirage said .
“The SL Airline cut back contract and trainees and reduced outsourced staff,” he said adding that there would have been about a total of 1000.
He noted that they expect to open and resume operations in June and they are working together with the Airport and Aviation Authority.
Mr Pathirage pointed out that at present there is no confirmed date to resume operations as the government has to decide on this and that would also depend on the situation in the other destinations.
SriLankan Airlines will consider new routes and reduce others in the near future.depending on the global situation, he said.
For instance SriLankan has been operating a number of flights to India but now this would depend on them opening up, he explained.
In April the airline announced they were implementing cost-saving measures like a mandatory 2.5 to 25 per cent staff salary reductions for a period of three months and a freeze of all salary increments for this year.
Sri Lankan Air Line has recorded revenue of Rs.184 billion last year compared to Rs 164.6 billion in 2018 while passenger capacity has been increased to18.9 billion to 18.4 billion.
However it is very unlikely to achieve the same performance during this year owing to Covid 19 crisis, officials said.
(LIN)